


Two of a Kind

by NoBrandMinda



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Gen, White Diamond is a mom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-10-19 02:37:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 28,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoBrandMinda/pseuds/NoBrandMinda
Summary: "There are no other gems like Steven." "Are you sure?" Little could the Crystal Gems know that there WAS another gem like Steven, and that soon the daughter of White Diamond would take notice of him, changing both of their destinies forever.





	1. Like Me

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Domina Alba](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12498108) by [Wierdkid20](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wierdkid20/pseuds/Wierdkid20). 



> Once upon a time, I came up with the crack theory that the reason White Diamond was so reclusive was because she, like Rose Quartz, had had a child and disappeared. (Seen here: https://mindareadsoots.tumblr.com/post/161376164265/white-diamond-is-a-mom ) Wierdkid20 created a long running fic of their own based on the idea, and now that we've gotten to know White Diamond a little bit better, I'm making my own go of it. Enjoy!

“I can’t believe they didn’t invite me to the trial. They didn’t even let me know it was happening!”

“Perhaps they believed that you were better off focusing on your studies, My Diamond.”

“How can I focus on studying history when we’re _making_ history right now? That’s Rose Quartz they’ve got in there. THE Rose Quartz, Iris!”

“Yes,” said Iris Agate, uncomfortably. “I fail to understand your fascination with this topic. Her rebellion was put down thousands of years before you were made.”

“Born,” corrected White Diamond.

“Fine, ‘born’ then,” huffed the Agate, rolling her eyes. She knew that the circumstances of White Diamond’s current state were… _unique_ , but she never understood why Her Diamond was so adamant about using strictly organic terminology to describe her new form. “In any case, My Diamond, why the interest in… her...”

“Rose Quartz,” finished White Diamond. “You can say her name, Iris. It’s not like I’m going to shatter you for speaking a traitor’s name. I’m not Blue.”

“Thank you, My Diamond. You still haven’t answered my question. Why do you care about Rose Quartz?”

“Two reasons.” White Diamond raised two fingers, but did not slow her pace in the slightest. “One, how could I not be interested! My father came from the Earth. It’s practically my home planet that she was fighting for. I’ve never even had the chance to go there!”

“Did Blue Diamond not take you there once when you were much smaller?”

“Younger. Yeah, but we didn’t land or anything. Just viewed it from a distance while orbiting its moon. It’s not the same as really _going_ to a planet.”

“And the second reason?”

“It’s such a fantastic mystery, isn’t it? What drove her to do it? Why that planet? How is it that she could bring herself to…”

“Shatter Pink Diamond.” This time it was Iris Agate’s turn to finish Her Diamond’s sentence.

“Yes.” A chill fell in the air as the two gems marched through the halls of the Diamond palace.

They continued in silence for another few hundred paces before Iris asked, “So where are we going, My Diamond? The chamber for the trial is in the other direction.”

“The warp pad is too far away. I don’t want to miss anything. We can watch it from my quarters.”

“Very good, My Diamond.”

As they neared their destination, they were greeted by a lone Pearl standing at attention in the hallway outside of an enormous door. Her brushed back hair matched that of her owner, and likewise provided an unobstructed view of the gem in the center of her forehead. With a nod from her mistress, the Pearl turned and pressed a panel on the wall, allowing them into the private sanctum of White Diamond.

“Thank you, Pearl.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Bring up the feed from the Rose Quartz trial.”

“Of course.”

With a casual leap, White Diamond flew high into the air and landed on the seat of a throne the size of a small house. She had once considered replacing it with something more practical, but at the same time she had to admit that she liked the feeling of being so high above everyone. Meanwhile, her Pearl stepped to the side and laid a hand on a console at the base of the chair. With a small crackle of energy, her gem began to emit a holographic image of the courtroom.

“Excellent! It looks like it hasn’t even started yet,” said White Diamond, standing at the edge of the throne. The darkened courtroom was lit from below by the white, yellow, and blue insignia of the Diamonds, bathing the room in an eerie green light. White could see two Zircons milling about in the center of the room, near perfect mirrors of each other save for their respective colors. Seated between them in the place of the defendant was…

“Wait…”

“Is that…”

“Pearl, zoom in, I want a better look.”

“Got it.” The camera seemed to move in between the two Zircons who had already begun a heated conversation. Whatever the source of their antagonism, their words fell on deaf ears. All attention was focused on the figure nestled in the center of the courtroom. They had dark curly hair and dark eyes. They wore not self-generated appearance modifiers, but cloth made of some sort of fabric. Emblazoned across their red shirt was a yellow star.

And they were unmistakably human.

White Diamond ran to the side of her seat and jumped up onto the arm of the enormous chair. Kneeling down, she pressed a button bringing up a holographic screen in front of her and began hastily flipping through pages.

“Report… report… where’s that blasted Aquamarine’s report?!”

Suddenly, another image of the human slid into place on screen. This time, they were standing on the gangplank of a homeworld scouting ship facing down an Aquamarine and a Topaz fusion. They had lifted up the corner of their shirt, exposing their stomach. Set in place of their belly button was a large pink gemstone, cut with five facets across its face. This human had the gem of Rose Quartz.

The scene of the trial flickered out of existence. White Diamond looked down to see Pearl and Iris Agate staring up at her with matching stunned expressions.

White Diamond let out a short laugh as her hand trailed to her own gem embedded in her forehead. Unlike the flat face of the Rose gem, White Diamond’s gem came out to a sharp point aiming straight ahead of her. “Guess my mom wasn’t the craziest gem in the universe after all.”

“Does that mean…?” murmured Pearl.

She stared at the captured image in front of her some more. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. All she could do was drink in the image of the no longer wholly unique lifeform. “Yeah,” choked out White Diamond, “He’s like me.”


	2. The Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White Diamond watches as Yellow and Blue blow it.

“He?”

“What?”

“You said ‘he,’” asked Pearl, “What does that mean?”

“Oh, uh… how do I explain this?” High above Pearl, White Diamond sat on the front of the chair arm with one leg dangled lazily over the edge. She quickly paged through the Aquamarine’s report. “The Rose Quartz child goes by the name ‘Steven’ which is a boy’s name.”

“What’s a boy?”

“Oh, stars, I knew that’s where this was going. Bring the trial back up, we’ll have time to talk about the birds and the bees later.”

“I thought we would be talking about boys.”

White nearly impaled her hand on her own gem as she covered her face.

“I’m only joking,” said Pearl with a smirk. “I know an idiom when I hear one, even if I don’t get it.”

White Diamond attempted to glare down at Pearl from her perch on the gigantic armrest, but one look at Pearl’s self-satisfied grin sent her into a fit of laughter. “Okay, you got me with that one.”

“Ahem,” came a voice from somewhere below White Diamond. Looking around she found her Agate looking impatient. “The trial, my Diamond?”

“Right, right. Pearl?”

“Of course,” said Pearl, in a much more businesslike tone.

As the hologram from Pearl’s gem flickered back to life, White Diamond said to herself, “Come to think of it, I don’t get it either. Do the birds represent-”

White Diamond was interrupted by the voice of a different Pearl. “-and the lustrous Blue Diamond.” On cue, Blue and Yellow Diamond arrived in the courtroom, towering over all others present.

“Here we go…” said White.

Inside the courtroom, Blue Diamond asked, “Where is the accused?”

“Is _that_ Rose Quartz?” asked Yellow, finally noticing Steven in the room. “Look at this hideous form she’s taken. Forget the trial. We should shatter her just for looking like that!”

“Hey!” shouted White, indignantly.

“You know she can’t hear you, my Diamond,” said Iris Agate.

White gritted her teeth and made a low noise of irritation. She was already regretting her decision to not go to the trial directly.

Inside, Blue Diamond was speaking. “I want to know what she thinks we’re going to do with her. Because I want to do something _worse_.”

Yikes. Blue always did scare White more than Yellow. Yellow Diamond’s perpetually sour mood was legendary, but at least that made her easy to read. Talking with Blue Diamond was like walking on eggshells, to borrow a phrase from her home planet. She could oscillate between emotions with frightening speed, and on more than one occasion White had found herself enveloped within her grief inducing aura with little to no warning. She had no idea how Blue’s Pearl was still sane after so much time in her service.

The trial began with the prosecuting Zircon laying out the case, starting with the motive for Rose Quartz’s crime. With a snap of her fingers, the other human captured by Aquamarine appeared beside her.

“As we can see from this specimen, humans are loud, absolutely hideous creatures that serve no purpose whatsoever,” continued Zircon.

Iris and Pearl both groaned while White tapped a finger in irritation. “Yellow and I are going to have a talk about that,” she ground out.

The half-human took a few steadying breaths.

“I don’t get it though,” she finally said.

“Don’t get what?”

“Why are they acting like that’s Rose Quartz? They must recognize him for what he is.” Although she had no memories of her own birth, White Diamond had been told that Yellow and Blue had witnessed the event first hand. According to them, White’s mother had wanted there to be no doubt in their minds that she was becoming something different.

In her own judgement, the results were a mixed success. The Diamonds almost never referred to her by her human name, and although she wore her mother’s title with pride, she suspected that doing so was giving the Diamonds an excuse to not deal with her mother’s absence. Still, personal hang-ups aside, Yellow and Blue should have known perfectly well that they weren’t looking at the original Rose Quartz anymore.

As if reading her mind, Zircon continued to make her case, “But I know what you’re thinking. ‘This thing doesn't look like a Rose Quartz.’ And for that, I’d like to call an eyewitness.”

White raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure they can’t hear me in there, Iris?” she asked sarcastically.

Zircon brought forth a Ruby with a gemstone in place of one of her eyes. She told the story of how Steven had claimed to be Rose Quartz, and had demonstrated her abilities as proof.

“I tried to help you! I healed your gem,” pleaded Steven.

“And who else has the ability to heal gems other than the villainous Rose Quartz?”

“And there you have it,” concluded the prosecuting Zircon. “Rose Quartz did it, and that’s Rose Quartz. I rest my case.”

“Well, I’m convinced. Time to execute!” said Yellow, cheerily.

“THAT DOESN’T PROVE ANYTHING!”

Iris Agate and Pearl both jumped. White Diamond was now standing as she shouted at the scene playing out in front of her

“Of course he has his mom’s powers! He has her gem! That’s how it works! Why is Yellow still ignoring… oh no.”

“What is it?” asked Pearl.

“This isn’t a trial, it’s a show. Yellow doesn’t care whether or not that’s Rose Quartz, she just wants to get this over with and put it behind her.”

“With all due respect, my Diamond, so what if she does? That is Rose Quartz’s gem he’s carrying.”

White Diamond’s head snapped to look down at Agate with a dangerous look in her eye.

Iris Agate put up her hands in a placating gesture. “I agree that he doesn’t deserve to be punished for his mother’s crimes, but how would you propose they serve justice to Rose Quartz for what she did?”

White Diamond sighed and sat heavily back down on the edge of the chair. “I don’t know, Iris. Maybe the gem can be removed safely? It doesn’t _LOOK_ like it’s replacing anything vital, but on the other hand, his gem will be augmenting his body in ways we don’t fully understand.”

“You… forgive me, but you sound like you’ve put some thought into this,” said Iris, tentatively.

“My gem can’t be removed, Iris,” said White Diamond, feeling the tip of it on her forehead. “You’d have to open up my skull just to see the whole thing, and it takes up so much space that I don’t think there’s enough brain mass in there to keep a human body running if you pulled it out. I’ve made peace with that, but I wonder if it would be possible under different circumstances, you know?”

Inside the trial, the defence had begun making their case.

“What do you want to do, My Diamond? Do you want to interrupt the trial?”

White considered the scene for a moment. The defending Zircon was fumbling around, apparently at a loss how to even begin to mount a case.

“Yeah. I’m sending my mother’s pearl there now,” said White.

White heard Pearl shiver below her.

“I know, Pearl. It’s a mean trick, but if it saves that kid, I’ll take it.”

Intellectually, Yellow and Blue Diamond knew that a communication from the disfigured puppet-like pearl was as good as a communication from the younger White Diamond herself. But whether due to her eerie appearance, or simply out of habit after taking the Pearl’s word as law for thousands of years, the Diamonds still had a hard time denying White Diamond when she spoke to them through her mother’s pearl.

It was as easy as moving a part of herself. Within moments, White could sense that she was in position and was about to make her dramatic entrance when her focus was drawn back to the present by a sudden interruption.

“I did it!” exclaimed Steven.

“Wh-what, what! Stop!” stammered the defending Zircon.

“No,” said Blue. “I want to hear what she has to say.”

“What’s he doing?” asked White, to nobody in particular.

“State your name, for the record, please,” said Yellow’s Pearl.

“I, um… I’m Rose Quartz.” The boy lifted his shirt to display the gemstone set in his abdomen. “And I’m guilty. Everything you guys said I did, I did. And I did it by myself. And I’m sorry. I’ll accept any punishment you want to give me. Just let him go,” he said, pointing at the human who’d been brought into the trial. “And leave the Earth alone.”

White Diamond sighed. “Now I get it. The kid thinks he can save his planet if he gives them what they want.”

“Sounds noble,” said Pearl.

“He’s an idiot,” said Iris Agate, evenly.

“He’s naive,” agreed White Diamond. “He has no leverage here. There’s nothing stopping us from doing whatever we want to Earth as soon as this trial is over. Not that it matters. Yellow’s Cluster project is almost ready to emerge, and that’ll be the end of that.”

As they were talking, Blue Diamond leaned in close to the accused boy. “How did you shatter Pink Diamond?”

“Um… well. I did it on Earth. In front of Pink Diamond’s palanquin. I was probably like, ‘Stop!” and she was all like “No!” So we fought- I think.”

“Stars, he has no idea what he’s doing,” chuckled White.

“Weren’t you about to stop this farce?” asked Pearl.

“Let’s see how this plays out. Blue looks like she’s hoping for… something. And maybe his terrible confession will convince Yellow that pretending he’s Rose Quartz isn’t so convenient after all.”

“... I was most likely deeply conflicted about deciding to shatter her. Definitely crying. I probably had to use the Breaking Point to do it,” concluded Steven.

“It was a sword!” sobbed Blue Diamond. A blue aura radiated out from her as she buried her face in her hands. White flinched and almost started crying reflexively before reminding herself that Blue was not actually in the room with her. White took a few calming breaths while Yellow Diamond called for a recess.

“Well, they haven’t shattered him yet, so that’s good.” White began flipping through the reports from Earth again. “Does the term ‘breaking point’ mean anything to either of you? I don’t see it mentioned anywhere in here.”

“No.”

“I can’t think of anything, my Diamond.”

“I wonder what he was referring to then… some sort of weapon obviously, and one that he thought would be capable of shattering a Diamond. Hmm…”

“What is it, my Diamond?”

“I don’t know. Something doesn’t add up here, and I can’t put my finger on what it is.”

White watched the still running footage from the trial. The only person left in the center of the courtroom was the accusing Zircon - looking marvelously pleased with herself. Yellow’s Pearl was continuing to make notes in the court record. Blue’s Pearl appeared to be drawing something, although White couldn’t see what it was from this far away. Yellow Diamond was still standing over Blue, comforting her.

“I don’t think Blue got the answers she was looking for, and now I have questions too.”

“It is strange that he didn’t think of Rose’s sword first. She was famous for it during the war,” chimed in Pearl.

“No kidding. I don’t think there’s even one recorded instance of anybody defeating her in combat.” White Diamond began flipping though casualty statistics from various battles. “One hundred forty-three gems dissipated at the first Battle for the Lunar Sea Spire, twenty eight by Rose Quartz personally. Eighty-seven gems dissipated at the Tunguska Sea, fourteen by Rose Quartz. Lots of minor skirmishes against just her and the Renegade Pearl. Several of them attribute all dissipated gems to Rose Quartz, but I suspect that’s just because they’re too embarrassed to admit they got beaten by a Pearl.”

White could practically feel the smug smile coming from her own Pearl.

“Hmm… this can’t be right though.”

“What is it, my Diamond?” asked Iris.

“There are zero recorded instances of Rose Quartz shattering another gem.”

“Zero?”

“Zero.”

“That can’t be right.”

“No it can’t. And yet there is only one known gem who Rose Quartz personally shattered.”

White brought up an old image of Rose Quartz, sword in hand. It looked deadly enough to her eye, but she was half human. A lethal strike against her would simply cause a gem to dissipate and reform later. The only way that sword could shatter any gem was by slicing through the gemstone directly… _That was it._

“Strange weapon to shatter a Diamond, isn’t it?” mused White Diamond.

“How do you mean?” asked Iris.

“I mean, a sword is a terrible weapon for causing permanent damage to a gem. It doesn’t have enough weight behind it. Even if your aim was to cut through a gem rather than shatter it with a blunt impact, you’d need a very heavy force and a very tough blade to make it through the gem.”

“My Diamond, that’s all very interesting, but I believe you’re forgetting that Rose _did_ shatter Pink Diamond. With her sword. In front of dozens of witnesses,” replied Iris.

“That- oh… right…” White Diamond leaned back and stared at the ceiling in thought. “This is fun,” she concluded, grinning.

“Well, I’m glad you think so, my Diamond, but I feel like we’re just talking in circles at this point.”

“You’re right,” said White standing up. “Perhaps it is time I joined in after all. Maybe I can jog something out of that kid that’ll help put the pieces together.”

“Wait,” said Pearl, “You might want to hear this.”

The trial had resumed while they’d been discussing Rose Quartz, and the defending Zircon seemed to have found a new wind in her sails. White Diamond stood frozen, torn between rushing off to the courtroom, and fearing that she might miss something important en route.

“It’s indisputable that as the Diamond overseeing Earth, Pink was Rose Quartz’s enemy. Rose had everything to gain by shattering her. But even though she may have wanted to shatter Pink Diamond, could she?”

“Oh, this sounds promising,” said White, sitting back down.

The defending Zircon asked Blue Diamond to call in her palanquin and continued her argument. “Now, as the records show Pink Diamond was shattered just outside a palanquin much like this. Witnesses say Pink had just stepped out and had only taken a few steps forward when Rose attacked her from the front!” She was forced to pause as Blue Diamond reacted viscerally to the description. “The question no one seems to be asking is, ‘how?’”

" _I've_ been asking that question,” said Blue Diamond.

“So have I,” grumbled White.

“A-a-a-and right you are to ask, My Diamond!” stammered Zircon. “B-because at the time that Pink was shattered, Rose Quartz had been a recognized threat for several hundred years. There were no Rose Quartz soldiers in her entourage and none in her guard. So how did a Rose Quartz, with no business being anywhere near Pink Diamond, get so close in the first place? Where were Pink Diamond's attendants? Her Agates, Her Sapphires? And where was her Pearl?”

White Diamond, Iris Agate, and Pearl were now giving Zircon their undivided attention.

“They were with her, of course, they saw the whole thing!” shouted Yellow.

“But none of them saw Rose Quartz approach? Wouldn't her Sapphires have seen Rose Quartz coming? Wouldn't her Agates have tried to fight her off?”

“That is strange,” said White in almost perfect unison with Steven.

“She must have slipped past them!” said Yellow, her patience dwindling.

“Even if she did, wouldn't her Pearl have cried out an alarm, ‘Watch out, My Diamond!’”

“I would not sound like that,” muttered Pearl.

“No, whoever did this was already close to Pink Diamond. Someone her guards would allow to get near her, someone she would listen to when asked to stop her palanquin and step outside, and someone with the authority to cover it up afterwards! Someone with supreme authority... Someone... like _one of you_!”

Blue Diamond gasped. Yellow Diamond glared down at the Zircon. White Diamond simply stared, forgetting to breath.

“Uh, disregard that last statement! I might have gotten carried away!” But before Zircon could defend herself further, Yellow Diamond brought down one immense finger on top of her, crushing her instantly and sending her gem skittering across the ground.

“Darn it, Yellow! She was onto something!”

“You really think so?” asked Pearl.

“Of course!” White’s thoughts were going a million miles an hour as the courtroom devolved into a shouting match between the Diamonds. _One of the Diamonds complicit in Pink Diamond’s shattering?_ It was hard to fathom, but at the same time it made so much sense. The Crystal Gem rebellion had always been far too successful for its size. Had a Diamond been aiding them the entire time? White went over the suspects in her head.

Blue? Certainly not, or if she was the accomplice, then her insistence on prolonging this trial in search of the truth was utterly baffling.

Yellow? A stranger might have looked at her behavior at the trial as incriminating, but White knew better. Yellow wasn’t trying to “cover up” anything by rushing the trial, she was just rushing the trial because that’s how she was.

White Diamond, her mother? Now that was an interesting thought. White’s mother had had a fearsome reputation. Even the other Diamonds were plainly afraid of her. Would she have wanted Pink shattered for failing to quash the rebellion on Earth? She filed that thought away for later contemplation.

And Pink Diamond herself of course, but it was ludicrous to think that she was guilty of her own murder. Unless-

“Um, My Diamond?” Pearl had been trying to get White’s attention while she was lost in thought.

“Huh?” White looked down at Pearl, who was pointing at the holographic image. Blue and Yellow were still arguing, but the human and half-human had disappeared from view. “Where-” Suddenly, Blue Diamond’s palanquin sprang to life, tottering back and forth a couple of times before leaping straight into the air, leaving only a circle of sunlight on the floor behind it.

“External view! Now!” shouted White Diamond.

The walls in the room changed, shifting from solid stone to a panoramic display of the homeworld skyline outside White’s palace. Off to the south, the three of them could see the round tower where the Rose Quartz trial had taken place, and sailing high above was Blue Diamond’s palanquin.

White Diamond laughed. She couldn’t help it. It was just too ridiculous. Of all the ways for them to have escaped…

White sat her hands on her hips and watched the palanquin slowly arc downward and plunge all the way into the depths of Homeworld’s cityscape.

“Well done, Steven,” she said, still chuckling to herself.

“Should you really be congratulating a traitor, My Diamond?” asked Iris.

“After the look on Yellow’s face when he escaped? Absolutely. I have a feeling the fun’s just getting started,” said White. “In fact…”

\--

Inside the courtroom the inert gems of the two Zircons lay forgotten. The two Pearls stood still, hoping to go unnoticed. The two Diamonds on the other hand were carrying on an animated conversation as they argued over what had just transpired. Neither of them noticed as a new figure entered the room, not by warp pad or doorway, but by rising through the solid floor as easily as if it were water.

It was a Pearl, colored only in whites and greys; her most striking feature the jagged crack running across her left eye. She stood with a vacant smile and her hands on her hips in a perfect reflection of her owner kilometers away.

“Well, Yellow,” she began. Both Diamonds jumped as the voice of the younger White Diamond suddenly filled the room.

“I’d say you’ve brought this trial to its thrilling conclusion. Did you have fun? Did you get everything out of your system?”

Yellow bit back a retort.

White Diamond giggled, and her laugh was echoed by the bleached Pearl. “Perhaps we should meet in the grand ballroom to discuss our next move. _All three of us_ ,” she emphasized.

The two Diamonds looked away, but nodded.

“Excellent!” said White. “I’ll see you there.” She directed her mother’s Pearl to leave the courtroom and returned her focus to her own body.

White Diamond took one last look at the Homeworld skyline before jumping down from her elevated throne and making her way towards the door with an extra spring in her step.

“What are you so happy about, My Diamond?” asked Iris Agate, cocking an amused eyebrow.

“It’s like I said before, Iris. We’ve got a genuine _mystery_ on our hands, and I’m going to be the one to solve it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a few people reading the last chapter expected the trial to play out differently this time. Rest assure there ARE narrative reasons why it didn't, which we will be getting into in the next chapter, but from a meta stand point a big inspiration for this fic was me, in the summer of 2017, trying to reconcile the fact that White Diamond wasn't at the trial of Rose Freaking Quartz and imagining what could be holding her up. Now that the trial is over, things will begin to play out VERY differently from canon.
> 
> As a side note, this chapter was fairly self indulgent for me. I've been liveblogging Steven Universe for about two years now, so writing my characters essentially react to an episode of SU was a load of fun!


	3. Pink Diamond's Colony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White Diamond confronts the others about their behavior at the Trial and makes a startling announcement.

“So that’s how it works!” said Pearl.

“Those are the basics, anyway. The whole process is a lot messier than it is for gems.” White Diamond paced back and forth across the golden throne at the head of the grand ballroom with Pearl standing at attention beside her.

“Fascinating,” said Pearl, her eyes glittering.

“If you and Iris wanted to… experiment, I could lend you two some anatomical references,” said White with a sly grin.

Pearl spluttered. “I wouldn’t! I mean, why would I- That-” her eyes suddenly widened in fear, _“You KNOW about that?”_ she hissed.

White waved nonchalantly, “You two have a good mask when you’re on the clock, but the walls _literally_ have eyes, you know. Mouths too, if anybody bothered to talk to them.”

“Ohmystars,” Pearl seemed to shrink in on herself, even as her face turned an alarming shade of blue.

“Relax,” said White. “I’m happy for you two, really. You’re the closest thing I had to a family growing up, especially after dad died.”

“What about the other Diamonds?”

White paused for a moment. “That’s… complicated,” she said, finally. “They weren’t- You two were there for me while they were out running the empire. So I’m glad that it’s not just me keeping you together.”

“This isn’t something Pearl’s are supposed to do,” said Pearl meekly.

“Ha!” snorted White. “If you’re worried about _that_ , I doubt fraternizing with an Agate would be your first offense.”

Pearl gave a nervous chuckle, “I suppose that’s true.” White Diamond had been a small child when Pearl was first given to her, and had insisted that they do everything together. As a consequence, Pearl had been included in some very un-pearl like things, particularly White’s years of training to become a proper Diamond.

“I still have a scar from the first time we sparred together,” said White, grinning.

“Oh stars, I thought Agate was going to shatter me right then and there.”

“I think she’d already taken a liking to you by that point. You were always the better student. And you’re still a better fighter.”

“Please, I haven’t been able to beat you in years.”

White shrugged, “Yeah, well, I’m like a half-meter taller than you, and I’m stronger, but you’re still more skilled than me.”

“You’re being too modest,” said Pearl. “Can I ask you something though?”

“Sure.”

“It’s one thing to study history or the process of gem production. You had no trouble convincing Iris that I’d serve you better if I had an understanding of that, but why combat?”

“You’re my friend. I didn’t want to leave you behind.”

“I’m your Pearl,” she corrected, gently.

“You don’t have to be _just_ a Pearl. Everybody on this planet is so fixated on what they’re supposed to be that they miss out on what they could be. What a waste. Think of it, Pearl. Somewhere out there, there could be a Ruby who’s able to revolutionize our injector designs, a Peridot with a tactical mind to rival any Emerald,” White looked directly at Pearl now. “A Pearl ready to rule the universe side by side with a Diamond.”

Pearl felt a thrill shoot through her entire form. Her Diamond’s normally dark eyes now shown a bright shade of magenta, as they often did when she became particularly impassioned.

“I… Lumi.”

White Diamond’s smile grew warmer. “I like hearing you use my real name.”

“I like saying it,” agreed Pearl. “But you know how much trouble it would cause if anyone else heard me say it.”

“Well, maybe one day we’ll be able to change that.”

Outside the ballroom, a second set of senses from her mother’s Pearl alerted White Diamond that Yellow and Blue were on their way.

“Time to put on our masks,” said Lumi, looking at the doorway to the grand entrance. “But seriously though, you and Iris should watch out for the living walls from now on. I doubt Yellow and Blue would bother talking to them, but if they do, you might actually get into trouble.”

Pearl nodded once. White raised her hand, and a silver bubble began to form around Pearl, starting at her feet.

“Oh, and I’ll be sure to give you those anatomical references later,” added Lumi. Pearl’s blushing face was the last thing she saw before the bubble closed around her. With a lazy gesture, the bubble lifted off the golden throne and deposited Pearl in her proper place below the throne of White Diamond. A moment later, Yellow Diamond strode into the hall, none the wiser to the fact that her seat had just been taken by a lowly Pearl.

White Diamond however, remained defiantly standing in Yellow’s chair, casually leaning against the armrest with one hand. Yellow narrowed her eyes as she approached, with Blue close behind her. Their two pearls remained at the doorway, standing at attention.

“Why aren’t you in your own chair, White?” asked Yellow.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” said White, theatrically, “My poor _hideous_ human body just couldn’t make it all the way up there!”

Yellow recoiled slightly, remembering her response to “Rose Quartz’s” appearance at the trial.

“I told you she would find out about the trial, Yellow,” said Blue coming up beside her.

“Well, I’m glad you two _remembered_ to exclude me and didn’t just forget I existed. That’s comforting.” The two Diamonds refused to meet White’s eye. “In all honesty, what were you two thinking? What did you hope to accomplish by questioning him like he was his mother?”

“The child identified herself as Rose Quartz,” said Yellow, crossing her arms.

“Yes,” said White. “He also identified himself as a ‘My-dad’ when he thought that was what the collection team wanted to hear. Otherwise, everyone around him called him Steven. Your Aquamarine’s report was very thorough,” added White, nodding at Blue.

“She still might have known something,” insisted Blue. “Somebody could have told her what Rose Quartz did. And I know you have experienced some of White’s memories.”

For the first time since the Diamonds arrived, Lumi stiffened. “Only fragments,” she said, “and only when I’m dreaming.”

“Is it just fragments, I wonder?” asked Yellow, eyeing her suspiciously.

“What do you mean?” Lumi had to stop herself from taking a step backwards.

“You used to talk about your nightmares when you were newer. Some of the scenes you described were very descriptive. And _very_ familiar…”

Lumi’s voice caught in her throat. “Younger,” she finally said, “not newer.”

“And, when you were _'younger’_ , you seemed to know your way around the palace like it was second nature.”

“The layout’s very intuitive,” said Lumi, waving her hand dismissively. “Anyway, why _didn’t_ you want me at the trial?”

“Under the circumstances, we didn’t think you could maintain your impartiality regarding the child’s fate.”

“Right. And you were just the _picture_ of sound logic when you tried to execute a boy on the word of a Ruby.”

White Diamond and Yellow simply glared at each other, White’s vantage point bringing her up to nearly eye level with the towering Diamond. With her temper rising, Lumi matched Yellow’s golden eyes with an amber shade of her own.

“Enough, both of you,” said Blue. Yellow and White each took a step back from one another, and White’s eyes returned to their usual dark shade as she composed herself.

“Anyway, what do you want to do once you recapture him?” asked White.

Yellow and Blue looked at each other uncertainly. Evidently, they were no closer to a consensus than they had been at the end of the trial.

White sighed in exasperation. “Look, just don’t kill him right away, alright? He still might be able to tell us something about whether or not Rose Quartz shattered Pink Diamond alone.”

“You’re not seriously talking about that defective Zircon’s wild theory, are you?” scoffed Yellow.

“I am, and don’t call her defective. She did the best she could with the evidence that she had, and crazy or not she was right about one thing. What happened to Pink doesn’t make sense.”

“Of course it doesn’t make sense,” moaned Blue. “Pink was a Diamond. She was supposed to… we were supposed to…”

White braced herself for Blue’s tears, but Yellow wrapped a comforting arm around her and pulled her close while she sniffled quietly. White Diamond gave them a moment before she resumed the conversation.

“There is something else I wished to speak to you about besides the immediate problem of tracking down a traitorous rebel; something the trial made me realize.”

“What is it?” asked Yellow.

“This empire needs more than two Diamonds. We have been short on resources and leadership ever since the rebellion on Earth, and my mother’s... departure has put even more weight on your shoulders. I’ve been preparing for this for my entire life, and it’s time for me to start colonizing my own worlds.”

Blue and Yellow stared at White with naked surprise. Even her own Pearl looked up at her curiously.

“And what does your Agate have to say on the matter?” asked Yellow. “Your mother put her in charge of your education. Does she share your optimism about your capabilities?”

“Of course,” said White, “As we speak, she is making preparations for myself and a reconnaissance team to leave for the planet at once.”

“You don’t mean to say that you’ve already selected a suitable planet for your first colony?” asked Blue.

“I have.”

“...”

“... Well?” said Yellow, when it was clear White intended to keep them in suspense.

Lumi’s eyes gleamed with silver light. “I intend to complete the colony started by Pink Diamond. I am going to reclaim the Earth.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lumi!
> 
> I can finally stop calling her "White Diamond's Daughter!"
> 
> It's Lumi!
> 
> It was very important to me that Pearl be the one to reveal Lumi's name, which is why it took so long to get to the right moment. The story of how Lumi got her name is going to make it into the actual fic eventually, so I'm not going to share it here.
> 
> This chapter also introduces Lumi's "Mood Ring Eyes", which I'd been wanting to include since I started writing but this was the first time it felt natural to mention them. By default, Lumi's eyes are black, but they do shift around a lot in ways that ought to make sense if you know the personality traits of the four Diamonds.


	4. Ballroom Blitz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White Diamond lays out her plans for Earth.

White Diamond rather enjoyed the effect she'd had. Stunned silence rang throughout the ballroom as the Diamonds processed what they had just heard.

“Earth,” Yellow finally said.

“Uh huh,” said White.

“You want your first colony to be… Earth?” asked Blue, sounding certain that she was mistaken.

“Not exactly,” said White. “I think it would be only fair for the colony to be completed in Pink's name. She deserves to have a successful colony as part of her legacy.”

“Have you cracked?” asked Yellow.

“Hmm?” said White, airily.

“Restarting the Earth colony is insane!”

“Why?” asked White, innocently.

Yellow Diamond gaped at her.

“Our initial findings on the available resources remain valid. Even accounting for the activities of the human population, Earth still promises to be one of the richest planets we've conquered in millennia. The infrastructure for a colony is still in place. The Warp Network is largely functional, save for the Galaxy Warp. Once that’s repaired, we’d be able to get back to full planetary conversion almost instantly. According to Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG some of the older databases are even intact as well. Relatively few planetary structures were completed, but that may turn out to be an advantage. With the advancements we've made in Era-2, we have the opportunity to take the planet with far more efficiency than was possible in Pink's time. Think of it, Yellow: an  _ Era-1 _ colony managed with  _ Era-2 _ efficiency.”

Yellow Diamond paused. She didn't want to admit it, but White sounded like she had thought this through.

“Oh!” added White, “And let's not forget that the gem of Rose Quartz is now trapped somewhere on Homeworld, and there are at most a half-dozen Crystal Gems alive on the planet. There is nothing standing in our way.”

“There is one thing you've forgotten,” said Yellow.

“Yes,” agreed White, “The Cluster is a problem. Before work on the colony can begin in earnest I'll have to find a way to extract it safely. I expect it'll be an engaging challenge.”

“And if you fail?”

White shrugged, “If I fail than nothing changes. The Cluster emerges, Earth gets destroyed, and we waste a perfectly good colony on one oversized geoweapon.”

Yellow Diamond scowled. “That planet is where Pink Diamond was shattered. It deserves the same fate.”

“Perhaps,” said White amicably, “But I believe it can instead serve as a celebration to her. That colony was her life's work. How could we leave it incomplete?” White was ready to play her trump card. “What do you think, Blue?”

White didn't even need to wait for an answer. Blue's eyes had long since drifted down to the pink throne next to her own blue one. One look up into Yellow Diamond’s eyes was all the argument Blue needed to settle the matter.

For a split second, White could swear she caught a look of wry amusement in Yellow's face when the two elder Diamonds turned their attention back to her.

“I am curious though,” said Blue, “why the sudden interest in Pink? It's been… I mean…” Blue faltered.

“A young Diamond? No planets of her own? Cooped up here on Homeworld waiting for a chance to prove herself? What can I say, I find her relatable.”

“You  _ are  _ almost as much of a troublemaker as she was,” said Yellow, smiling for the first time since she had entered the ballroom.

“I’ll have to put in more effort, then,” replied Lumi.

“Now then,” with a small hop, Lumi jumped off the edge of Yellow's throne. She came to a halt in midair just centimeters above the ground and lightly stepped the rest of the way down. “It'll be a week or so before my head is ready to leave, so I'm going to get as much time in the extraction chamber as I can. You know where to find me. Come along, Pearl.”

The two of them left the ballroom and made their way through the Diamond palace. Neither of them spoke until the hallways shifted from the multicolored general areas to the stark whites and greys of White Diamond's sanctum.

“That was well played,” said Pearl. “I can't remember the last time you talked them into something so easily.”

“After what happened at the trial, I think they were just ready for some good news.”

“Aren't you worried about getting their hopes up, though?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, it's kind of obvious what you're doing.”

“Is it?”

“You just want to go to Earth so you can find out what happened to Pink Diamond.”

“Guilty as charged,” nodded Lumi.

“So what are the Diamonds going to do when they find out you were bluffing about restarting the colony?”

Lumi gave Pearl a crooked smile. Her eyes shone with the same silver light they had in the ballroom. “What makes you think I was bluffing?”

Pearl blinked. “You… wow.”

“Is it really so surprising? My father was from Earth, and my mother was  **White Diamond** . That colony is my birthright twice over.”

“Didn’t you just tell the Diamonds you were doing this for Pink?”

“I knew that’s what it would take to get Blue on my side, and Pink really does deserve to have one successful colony to her name. I can accept shared credit if it means folding my home planet into the gem empire. Besides, it’s like my mother used to say, all light is a part of White light. It’s all the same, in the end.”

“Your father used to talk about Earth a lot. What happens if you… er…”

“Suddenly feel a deep spiritual connection to my ancestral home and need to protect it? That is part of why I’m doing this.” Lumi’s face darkened, “I can’t stand the thought of my planet getting obliterated just because it makes Yellow uncomfortable. We’re going to save the Earth, Pearl. It shouldn’t be too difficult to preserve a few oddities before the colony is complete. Pink Diamond had her Zoo after all, and that worked out fine. Oh! Maybe we can get a ‘giraffe’ for Yellow. Dad always said she reminded him of one for some reason.”

“What are you going to do about the Crystal Gems?” asked Pearl, “and Steven?”

Lumi slowed to a stop, the confidence she had displayed moments before evaporating. “The Crystal Gems will be easy enough to deal with. Unfortunately, I expect most of them will have to be shattered. As for Steven… poor kid. No matter what happens, Earth as he knows it is going to be destroyed. Ideally, I can convince him that his mother was on the wrong side of the war. If he has any human relatives, we can get them to the Zoo, find him a place here on Homeworld. This planet is at least as much his home as Earth is.”

“And if Steven refuses?”

Lumi smiled, weakly. “It’d be almost poetic, wouldn’t it? The son of Rose Quartz and the daughter of White Diamond. The only two of a kind in all the universe, and yet fated to do battle all the same.”

Pearl carefully avoided Lumi’s eyes, which were now tinged with a shade of blue.

“Anyway,” said Lumi, coming out of her revere, “It probably won’t come to that. Yellow is still out for that boy’s shards, and Blue is right behind her. If I don’t find any new information on Earth, if Rose really did murder Pink Diamond by herself... Odds are they’ll catch him, shatter his gem, and then I’ll go back to being alone.”

“You’re not alone,” said Pearl, closing the distance between them.

“You’re right.” Lumi put one arm around the tiny Pearl. The pair of them stood embracing each other in the empty hallway, allowing the world to drift around them, if only for a moment. 

“Sorry,” Lumi finally said.

“It’s alright,” said Pearl, as she stayed nestled against Lumi.

Lumi allowed the moment to last a few seconds longer. “Anyway…” The pair of them pulled away. “No time for hugging and crying now that there’s work to do.”

“Right,” said Pearl. “We’re just trying to stop a geoweapon, solve a 5,000 year old crime, rebuild a colony, and save the son of Homeworld’s greatest enemy. Am I forgetting anything?”

“I still need give you and Iris those anatomical-”

_ “LUMI!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate titles for this chapter:  
> "No, I wasn't joking"  
> "Blue isn't the only one who can manipulate emotions"


	5. Lumi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lumi prepares for her mission by reviewing what she knows - and doesn't know - about the Earth and about her allies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be the last DAILY update of the fic. I had the first few chapters done before I started posting, and now I've caught up with my backlog. Hopefully I don't update too slowly from now on, but as always it comes down to the amount of free time I have available to write. Enjoy!

The extraction chamber was usually one of Lumi’s _least_ favorite spots in the palace. By Diamond standards, it was a modestly sized bathtub, but for Lumi it was a preposterously sized swimming pool. Nevertheless, it was just so… boring! Nothing but hours of sitting around pruning until some arbitrary quota had been met. The worst of it was it was one of her few actual duties as a Diamond, and so she couldn’t in good conscience skip out on it. The… Diamond Essence, as Lumi liked to call it (for her own dignity, if nothing else) was the primary component used by the injection process. Without it, it was impossible to create new gems. Sometimes, Yellow or Blue would join her for a spell, but between their own workloads and the fact that their enormous forms could generate Essence far more quickly than Lumi could, they rarely kept her company for long. Otherwise, Lumi was left with her own thoughts (which was never ideal) or with some text to study.

Now however, Lumi found that the extraction chamber was the perfect place to get up to date on Earth. While Pearl and Iris Agate ensured that her mother’s head ship was properly supplied and space worthy, Lumi spent her time reading. It had been a decade or three since Lumi had studied the history of Earth, and quite a lot had happened since then.

After Pink’s shattering at the hands of Rose Quartz, the three remaining Diamonds had quickly and brutally ended the rebellion with one single attack on the planet. As an additional revenge, the Cluster was planted in the Earth’s core to ensure total destruction of the planet where Pink Diamond had met her end. After that, Earth was all but abandoned. Aside from very occasional checks on the Cluster, no homeworld gems had had meaningful contact with the planet until a little over a year ago. 

Things got interesting when a Red Eye sent by Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG to monitor the progress of the Cluster was destroyed while entering Earth’s atmosphere. Shortly after that, one Lapis Lazuli was found in deep space. Her story was that she had been mis-identified as a Crystal Gem, imprisoned in a mirror as punishment, left on earth, and had recently escaped. Although there was some doubt about her loyalties, the information she provided was corroborated when Peridot also made video contact with the surviving Crystal Gems.

Lumi found it troubling that this chain of events hadn’t raised more concern among Homeworld’s ranks. The Crystal Gems were supposed to have been wiped out entirely by the Diamonds’ attack, and yet here was evidence that they had survived. Furthermore, the Lazuli let it slip during her debriefing that her gem had been cracked and eventually repaired. Although she refused to say how her gem had been healed, it shouldn’t have been too difficult to make the connection to Rose Quartz. The Peridot in charge of the Cluster hadn’t even been told who the Crystal Gems  _ were _ , which went a long way to explaining why their return hadn’t triggered a stronger reaction. Lumi knew that the Diamonds had tried to suppress knowledge about the war, but of all the gems to tell,  _ at least _ those working directly with Earth should have been informed.

After that, the information on Earth contact became sketchier. Peridot had gone there along with a Jasper escort and reported that they had successfully imprisoned Rose Quartz and the surviving Crystal Gems. However, contact with their ship was lost soon afterwards, which Lumi inferred was most likely due to a jail break. 

Records indicated that one transmission was sent from Earth to Yellow Diamond’s personal line, although when Lumi asked her for details, Yellow denied having any memory of it. Blue Diamond had also recently visited Earth and taken a human with her to Pink’s Zoo. Lumi found that interesting but not particularly relevant in any way.

From all of this, Lumi was able to piece together profiles of every known gem on Earth. Aside from Steven, who remained at large somewhere on Homeworld, there were at least three still living Crystal Gems. The small purple Amethyst didn’t match the description for any known rebel fighter during the war. Given her short stature, Lumi guessed that she hadn’t emerged from her kindergarten until after the war had ended, and was therefore unlikely to know anything of value about Pink Diamond. An unnamed fusion appeared to be leading the gems in Rose’s absence. 

When Lumi got her first look at the Renegade Pearl, her jaw dropped. She looked nearly  **_identical_ ** to her own Pearl. The Renegade’s hair and eyes were perhaps a shade brighter, but they could easily pass for one another. After sharing this revelation with her thoroughly awestruck Pearl, Lumi spent several hours on an ultimately fruitless trek to find  _ any _ information on the Renegade Pearl’s origins, but somehow there was absolutely  _ nothing. _ She had seemingly appeared from thin air fighting alongside Rose Quartz from the moment the rebellion started. 

By the end of the day, Lumi was nearly ready to tear her own hair out. Her mother had seen to it that Lumi had access to  _ everything _ pertaining to gem history and culture. In fact, considering how Blue and Yellow Diamond actively avoided thinking about it, Lumi thought it was entirely possible that her week’s worth of research would make her more knowledgeable about Rose’s rebellion than any living gem in the empire. And yet she couldn’t find anything even  _ hinting _ at where the Renegade Pearl could have come from. No Goshenite or Moonstone had reported a runaway Pearl. No defective Pearls had gone missing after being deemed unsuitable for their owners. There was simply nothing to find.

The closest thing Lumi got to a lead was that the Renegade Pearl also bore a strong resemblance to Pink Diamond’s second Pearl, but that didn’t mean anything. She had served Pink faithfully up until the moment she… had… been…  _ Where were Pink Diamond's attendants? Her Agates? Her Sapphires?  _ **_And where was her Pearl?_ **

Zircon’s words floated thought Lumi’s mind. Taunting her. Lumi would have liked nothing more than to trade theories with the Blue Zircon who had inadvertently sent her on this quest, but after her nearly heretical outburst at the trial, she was lucky to have  _ only _ been locked away by Yellow Diamond instead of shattered.

In any case, besides the Crystal Gems, Lumi could identify three others who were still somewhere on Earth. Peridot, whose mission had been to check on the Cluster. Jasper, who had been sent along to escort her (perhaps somebody  _ had  _ recognized the significance of the Crystal Gems reemerging after all if they had assigned such a decorated warrior for a simple escort mission). And the very same Lapis Lazuli who’d first suggested that the Crystal Gems had survived had been tasked to serve as an informant. Unfortunately, trying to determine their status brought Lumi to another wall…

“Useless flipping Rubies,” Lumi grumbled.

“Is there a problem, My Diamond?” asked Iris Agate, without looking up from her own screen. Iris was keeping Lumi company for the moment since she didn’t need to be present to monitor the head’s resupply schedule.

“Nothing in these after action reports make the least bit of sense. According to them, the Peridot we sent to check on the Cluster is the new leader of the Crystal Gems, they’ve aligned themselves with a blue human named Bob, and baseball has become some sort of requirement for entering a human dwelling.”

“Uh… do humans even come in blue?”

_ “No they don’t, Iris! No, they do not.”  _ Lumi’s eyes had gone a frustrated shade orange.

Iris watched Lumi sulk underwater for a bit, waiting for her to come up for air. “So what do you make of it, My Diamond?” she asked when Lumi finally resurfaced.

“Well, obviously the recovery team got tricked by the Crystal Gems. They caught on eventually, but trying to sort out what really happened from what they  _ believe  _ happened is still nigh impossible. They were convinced that Jasper had turned purple and gone to Neptune for crying out loud!”

“Uh… I feel like I’m missing some context, My Diamond.”

“Believe me when I say that context wouldn’t help,” said Lumi, sulkily. “And why wasn’t Navy in charge of the team? She’s the only one who seems to have any idea what she’s doing!”

“‘Navy?’” asked Iris.

“Oh, right. I meant Ruby-1FU. Steven gave the whole Ruby squad nicknames based on their gem placement. It must have stuck, because they refer to  _ themselves  _ by those names throughout much of their report.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. There’s Eyeball, Army, Leggy,” said Lumi, pointing out various body parts as she went along, “Navy, and Boo- oh. Not the name I would have gone with, but that is adorably innocent.”

“I don’t follow,” said Iris.

“Ask Pearl about it,” said Lumi. “We’ve gotten off topic. At the very least Navy deserves a commendation for saving her squad after they were scattered throughout deep space. Even Steven’s testimony at his trial agrees with that account. 

“I’ll see to it, My Diamond,” said Iris Agate.

“Thank you,” said Lumi.

The conversation lulled as the pair of them returned their attention to their respective reports.

“Can I ask you something?” said Lumi, leaning against the edge of the pool.

“Of course, My Diamond.”

“Why don’t you ever use my name? Pearl only uses it when we’re in private, but she still uses it.”

“Pearl has to do what you tell her to do,” said Iris, evenly.

“And you don’t?” asked Lumi, cocking an eyebrow.

“Not the way she does,” said Iris.

“I- hang on, that-” Lumi started mentally cataloging her conversations with Pearl, “She doesn’t really use my name  _ only _ because I told her to… does she?”

Iris glanced away from her report. Before her was White Diamond. Greatest of the Authority. It was commonly believed that White Diamond had been the First. The gem who had created all other gems, including the three Diamonds whom all else respected and adored. And there she was. Clinging to the side of the pool. Sopping wet hair stuck to her back and shoulders. Wide eyes looking up to her. An Agate. A mid-level gem at best, for reassurance.

Iris closed the holo-screen in front of her and sat down at the edge of the pool next to Her Diamond, letting her feet dangle in the water.

“Yes and no,” she finally said. “I think she would freely call you by your name if she wanted to, but it’s true that you did not give her a choice in the matter.”

Lumi stared at the floor, gloomily.

“Hey,” Iris’s hand twitched as she considered patting Lumi on the head but thought better of it. “She’s only-”

“-Only doing what she was made to do,” finished Lumi. She curled up and kicked away from the side of the pool, floating on her back as she drifted to a stop in the middle of the water. “I am sick to death of hearing about what gems are ‘made to do,’” said Lumi. “We could- She could be so much more than that.”

Iris watched as Her Diamond drifted around in circles in the center of the pool. With her ears below the water line, she knew that Lumi wouldn’t be able to hear anything she had to say, anyway. For a moment or two, she considered her options, then clutching the edge of the pool with one hand, she slipped under the water. She took one deliberate gulping breath of water into what would be her lungs. When she was satisfied that she had reached an equilibrium with her aquatic environment, she spoke a single word.

“Lumi.”

Lumi jerked in surprise. Looking around underwater, she found Iris Agate accompanying her in the extractor. She tried to gasp in surprise and instead took in an  _ actual  _ lungful of air.

Lumi panicked.

Acting on animal instinct, she began flailing through the water in no particular direction.

Whoops.

This was not how Iris had expected this to go.

Iris let go of the side of the pool and began sinking like a stone. She waited for  _ juuuust  _ the right angle and then kicked off, shooting towards Lumi with all of her strength! Iris caught her under her arms and the pair of them sailed through the air over the opposite side of the pool. Iris rolled around to cushion their fall and landed hard on the stone next to the water.

The two of them slid to a halt, and Lumi rolled off of Iris trying to laugh and cough at the same time.

“DON’T * _ hacough* _ SCARE ME * _ ahahaaauuu*  _ LIKE THAT!” weezed Lumi.

_ “Shooooooo.” _ Iris tried to respond, and instead exhaled a mouthful of water.

Lumi curled up onto herself laughing even harder. For several minutes, she couldn’t even look at Iris Agate without bursting into a fresh fit of laughter. Iris, for her part, journeyed from annoyance, to bemusement, and finally to acceptance at Lumi’s behavior. She hadn’t seen Lumi laugh like that in perhaps half a century.

Finally, Lumi began to settle down with a series of long gasping sighs. 

“This isn’t something I can talk to Pearl about, is it?” asked Lumi. “Like, it’s  _ literally _ impossible for us to have a real conversation about it.”

“Well- You’d have to… if you’re careful… No,” said Iris, finally.

“You’ll tell me if I’m hurting her,” said Lumi.

“What?” asked Iris, despite sensing that it wasn’t a question.

“I mean it,” said Lumi, staring hard at Iris Agate. “I want Pearl to be happy, and I know you do too. She can be honest with you in ways that she can’t with me, so please…” 

“Okay,” said Iris.

Lumi’s whole body relaxed, stress and adrenaline leaving her, and Iris once again marveled at the fact that the vulnerable figure sprawled out in front of her was none other than a Diamond.

“When is the last time you slept, My Diamond?” asked Iris Agate.

“Dunno,” replied Lumi. “Couple days ago maybe. Was before the trial.”

“That won’t do at all. Come along.” Lumi was very nearly as tall as Iris Agate, though much slimmer of build. But even if Lumi had been twice her size, Iris would have had no trouble lifting the dozing Diamond.

“Noooooooo,” moaned Lumi. “I can shhhtill sit in the esstrator another couple a hours.”

“Later,” said Iris, firmly.

Deep within White Diamond’s sanctum, one bedroom had been prepared for the fledgling Diamond. It had been updated as she’d grown and contained a human sized (but still massive) bed, worthy of her stature. Balancing Lumi in one arm, Iris Agate undid the sheets and tucked her in. 

Like a cat, Lumi twisted and wriggled until she had the blankets and pillows in just the right position for a deep sleep.

“Good night, Iris,” she murmured as she drifted off.

Iris sat on the edge of the bed and looked out the window. The sun rarely set on Homeworld, and even when it did, the lights of the city never allowed for more than a  _ slight  _ decrease in the overall amount of light around the Diamond palace.

“Good night, Lumi,” said Iris.


	6. Pearl-003

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lumi gathers her crew and sets off for Earth, but not everyone is prepared to follow her orders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that only took a week longer than I wanted! This chapter is very important to me, because it's pretty much the ur-Lumi story. If I had written this fic as a one shot instead of an ongoing story, I'd have written this chapter. As such, it runs a little long, and the following chapter needed to be pretty much finished before I was comfortable publishing this one. But now it's here for all to see! Enjoy!

Traveling with Lumi always presented an extra layer of logistical problems. After all, unlike other gems, Lumi did have human needs to consider. She needed food, water, spare appearance modifiers, breathable air. And outside of Lumi’s own quarters, she wasn’t going to find a toilet anywhere in the gem empire. All this was to say that Lumi took her time preparing. Colonizing a planet took centuries, and Lumi didn’t want to rely on frequent return trips or on scavenging for food to get by while she was on Earth. 

It was also because of her organic needs that she began to worry about Steven as the days went by and he continued to elude capture. It would be a mistake to call homeworld “lifeless” but there was no doubt that it was inhospitable to organic lifeforms. Unless he stumbled across a friendly Lapis Lazuli, Lumi couldn’t see how Steven would find water, let alone food. Lumi thought it was  _ possible  _ that his gem could sustain him beyond normal human limitations, but Iris Agate had never allowed her to test that particular theory herself. 

On the day of her departure for earth, Lumi did receive one clue about Steven’s activities on Homeworld.

“What.”

Lumi was looking at camera footage of a shuttle theft that had occured only a few hours ago, and the group that had pulled it off was strange to say the least.

“Is that… is that a Rutile? How’d a Sapphire end up in a gang of ship thieves?  _ Oh my gosh, how many gems made that thing??? _ ”

“I counted six, My Diamond,” answered Iris.

Lumi made a choking sound and turned her attention back to the mirror in front of her. “That sounds… overwhelming,” she decided. 

Lumi resumed applying her dark makeup while Pearl helped tie her hair back. Lumi would be addressing the entire crew of the mission today and wanted to look her most Diamondy for the occasion. She was dressed in much the same style as her mother had been when she was alive, with a sleeveless floor-length white dress, sheer fingerless gloves up to her shoulders, and shoulder pads supporting a cape that sparkled like the night sky. Formal occasions such as this were also the only time she ever wore her black high heeled shoes.

“Indeed,” continued Iris, “but that’s not why I thought you’d want to see this.”

“Right.” Lumi tried not to move her head as she poked the screen next to her and zoomed in on the apparent leader of the motley crew. “That does look like the human who was with Steven when he escaped, but…”

“But, I take it it’s also unusual for humans to come in pink, My Diamond?” finished Iris.

“They certainly don’t come in  _ that shade _ of pink,” said Lumi. “And they don’t change colors over night. But if that’s  _ not  _ the human, then some Tourmaline or Morganite decided to shapeshift into him, and I honestly don’t know which explanation makes  _ less _ sense.”

Lumi’s eyes wandered to the ceiling as she tried to imagine what could have happened to the unlucky human. She didn’t get very far before a grumpy Pearl very aggressively angled her head back into place.

“And Steven wasn’t spotted with them?” asked Lumi.

“No, My Diamond.”

“Hmm.” Lumi sat quietly as Pearl finished up behind her. “I’ve got nothing,” she finally concluded. 

Pearl patted her on the shoulder, and Lumi gave her reflection a nod of approval. Lumi stood to face Iris Agate while Pearl fussed with the various makeup supplies on Lumi’s desk.

“Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now. The off-color human could be anywhere and we can’t just wait around forever hoping to find Steven while the Earth has a ticking clock on it. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even find answers there. Somebody on Earth will be able to tell us about Steven’s magical ability to turn people pink. That he has. For some reason.”

Pearl giggled appreciatively.

“Let’s go over the crew manifest one more time,” said Lumi

Pearl pulled a screen of her own out of her gem and began reading:

White Diamond Facet-Null Cut-Lumi

Iris Agate Facet-JA64 Cut-EB18

Emerald Facet-JXM Cut-7Q8

Carnelian Facet-88 Cut-ORI

Lapis Lazuli Facet-P4Z Cab-8222

Peridot Facet-2F5L Cut-A51

Nephrite Facet-1025 Cab-11

Pearl-005

“I believe that’s all of them,” finished Pearl.

“There’s one more coming along,” said Lumi, “I mean, I’m bringing- no, assigning- I mean… I don’t know what I mean. My mother’s Pearl is coming too.”

The other two gems looked at Lumi strangely.

“Okay…” said Pearl.

“If that’s what you want to do, My Diamond. Although, I had thought it would be more beneficial to keep her here in case you needed to contact Yellow or Blue Diamond.”

“And I thought you’d be glad to be away from her for a while,” said Pearl with… was that disapproval on her face?

“No, I mean, I would, it’s just…”

The quizzical expressions turned into looks of concern.

“Lumi, is there something you need to talk about?” asked Pearl.

Lumi sighed. “I’ve never really explained to you two the connection between my mom’s Pearl and me. It’s not that I mentally tell her what to do. It’s deeper than that. Controlling her feels like controlling my own body. I don’t know what my mother did to that Pearl, but whatever she did, I think it made her a part of herself, and when I was born, she became a part of me. I don’t feel ‘her.’ I don’t even know if there is a ‘her’ in there anymore. It’s only me.”

_ “Oh,  _ **_Stars_ ** _ ,” _ murmured Pearl. Even Iris looked shaken, and she had served White Diamond before Lumi was born.

“I can’t ‘get away from her’. There’s always this fragment of my mind that’s with her. And if I left the planet without her? If I left the  _ galaxy  _ without her? I don’t know what would happen. Maybe nothing. Maybe it’d break my mother’s spell on her and we’d all have a happy ending. But I don’t like the idea of leaving a piece of myself two million light years away.”

“Yeah,” said Pearl, her voice perhaps pitched slightly higher than usual, “Yeah, I get that.”

“Okay,” said Lumi. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about sharing all of this with Iris and Pearl, but it was out in the open now, so no use regretting it. “Add her to the manifest.”

“Are… you sure she technically counts as ‘crew’ considering…”

“Pearl,” said Lumi, sounding exhausted, rather than angry.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” Pearl tapped at her screen a few times: Additional crew: Pearl-003.

“And Lumi? I really am sorry.”

“For what?”

“For… I don’t know, I just, I always- I mean Stars, Lumi. Look at her  _ face _ , what was I supposed to think?”

“No, I get it.  **_Believe me_ ** , I get it. You don’t have to apologize. I should have told you sooner. I wish I could fix her, but first I need to know what my mother  _ did  _ to her, and I’m…” Lumi’s hand wandered to the tip of her gem, “in no hurry to explore that kind of power.”

The three of them milled about awkwardly avoiding each other’s gaze.

“Right!” said Pearl with a clap, “We should get going.”

Lumi gave Pearl a silent nod of thanks. As they were about to leave, she remembered something.

“Oh! We almost forgot about the makeup stand.”

“Right!” Pearl did an about-face and scanned the makeup station - desk, mirror, and all - and stored it in her gem. Lumi’s bedroom was completely barren now. Everything else had been moved to the ship earlier that morning. They had reached that bittersweet moment where the only step left on the checklist was to leave.

The three of them trekked their way up the Diamond palace to Lumi’s ship parked on the roof. Along the way, they were stopped by Yellow and Blue Pearl, who passed along brief messages of farewell from their respective Diamonds. It was all very dispassionate, but it was more than Lumi had expected. Lumi’s excitement began to return the nearer they got to the ship. She was finally going to be able to fly her mother’s head! By the time they entered the ship, Lumi was practically giddy with excitement. 

The command room in the face of the ship was massive, which Lumi was used to. Everything belonging to her mother had to be, after all. As she stepped onto the dais to control the ship, Pearl made one final check to make sure all crew and gear was aboard. Lumi made sure her mother’s Pearl was tucked in an out of the way corner where she wasn’t likely to startle anybody and began bouncing on her feet in anticipation. Iris Agate  _ strongly  _ urged her to stop doing that before she established her connection with the ship.

Once Pearl was satisfied that they were ready to leave, a silvery light surrounded Lumi’s head and shoulders, signifying that she was in control of the ship.

“So I just… will it to go UP?” she asked, and with a shutter, the ship was in the air.

Lumi struggled to keep her balance, a feat made all the more difficult by the fact that the ship itself wobbled along with her while she tried to find her center of gravity. She realized, far to late, that she really should have taken the high heels off before trying to fly this thing. After a few more seconds of treating Homeworld to the sight of their glorious Diamond’s flagship teetering about like a child’s top, Lumi found her footing, and with a much more confident effort they were off.

“That could have been worse,” said Pearl.

“Gee, thanks.”

“It also could have been better, My Diamond,” said Iris, failing to conceal a smirk on her face.

_ “Gee, thanks,” _ said Lumi, again. Once Lumi had set a course for Earth, she was able step down from the dias and move onto the next order of business: meeting the colonization team.

Lumi’s mother had stopped colonizing worlds entirely after Pink Diamond was shattered. In fact, the way Yellow and Blue described it, White had stopped doing much of anything, preferring to stay in her own head and send out decrees through her Pearl. And in the meantime, the number of gems under White’s direct command dwindled. Gems that she no longer had a use for were reassigned or harvested (Lumi hoped more of the former than the latter) and by the time Lumi was born relatively few gems in the empire wore her white symbol on their uniform.

Now that “White Diamond” was ready to conquer worlds again, she needed the troops for it, and to that end Yellow and Blue had provided the needed personnel. As promised, when Lumi entered the conference room, she found five gems waiting for her around a long table. From Blue Diamond’s court there was a Lapis Lazuli and Emerald who were chatting comfortably. One of Yellow’s Peridots was fiddling with a robonoid schematic on her limb enhancer while a gangly Nephrite looked on in interest. And opposite from the head of the table with her feet propped up was a burly looking Carnelian, also wearing a Yellow insignia.

As soon as Lumi entered the room, the assembled gems stopped what they were doing and stood in salute until Lumi took her place at the head of the table flanked by Pearl and Iris Agate. Lumi’s was not a monstrously proportioned chair usually reserved for her mother. This conference room was meant for normal sized gems to congregate and discuss plans. Lumi had given into sensibility and chosen it instead of her mother’s throne room to conduct the briefing. It didn’t have quite the same grandeur, but it did mean she didn’t have to shout all of her instructions from two stories above everyone’s heads.

“Uh, hello,” began Lumi. “You all know who you are, and what your area of expertise is. This is going to be a somewhat unorthodox scouting mission for a prospective colony, so before we arrive, I’d like to go over the mission objectives. Pearl?”

Pearl stepped forward and presented a holographic image of Earth and its moon above the conference table.

“Our first stop will be the Diamond command base on the moon. We’ll need to access the database there for a detailed status on the colony from the end of the war. The Ruby recovery team that recently returned from Earth reported that the computer terminal was badly sabotaged, but that shouldn’t be an obstacle, correct?” said Lumi, nodding at Peridot to her right.

“ _ Nyahaha _ , my robonoids can repair anything! I seriously doubt the Crystal Clods could do anything irreversible.”

Lumi nodded. “Once we have the original plans for the colony, you and Lapis Lazuli will be able to go over them to see what needs to be updated. I expect that there will be many places where Era-2 advancements will be able to improve the colony immensely.”

Peridot looked like she was practically drooling at the prospect.

“More importantly, we should also be able to find information related to the Cluster’s exact coordinates. If we can’t locate it before it emerges, then this whole mission will be reduced to a cute little apocalyptic vacation. Considering the effort that went into making it, I’d prefer it if we could extract it in one piece. That task will fall to you.” This time, Lumi turned her attention to the Lapis directly to her left.

“With that much water on the planet’s surface? Shouldn’t be a problem. Hey, how big is that ocean anyway?”

“About three quarters of the planet’s surface. If you’re wondering exactly how much water you have to play with, it’s around 1.3 million cubic kilometers.”

“Oh, this’ll be fun,” said Lapis, her eyes glittering.

Lumi shook her head, chuckling. “I sometimes forget just how scary powerful you Lapis Lazulis are.”

Lapis shrugged. “Just doing what I was made to do!” she said, cheerfully.

“Any questions?” asked Lumi.

From a little ways down the table, Nephrite raised her hand, nervously, “Umm… there have been rumors about Crystal Gems still being alive?”

“Leave that to me,” said Lumi, smiling. “I intend to deal with those gems  _ personally _ .”

Emerald raised her hand, “If you’re not expecting any major changes to the colony plan, or any significant resistance from the Crystal Gems, then why aren’t we starting with an invasion force? We could have the sites for every kindergarten, spire, and galaxy warp cleared out by the end of the month.”

“As a matter of fact, that’s why you and Carnelian are here,” answered Lumi.

Carnelian perked up for the first time at the mention of her name.

“The planet may not have changed, but its inhabitants have. The human race was a footnote in the planet’s ecology during the first colonization effort, but their civilization has advanced considerably. Your task will be threat assessment. Determine what level of resistance we can expect from them, and what level of force we’ll need to overwhelm it.”

_ “Like that’ll happen.” _

All eyes turned to the back of the room where Carnelian sat placidly. 

“Is there something you’d like to say, Carnelian?” asked Lumi, cautiously.

Carnelian traded looks with everyone in the room. “‘We’... ‘them’... are we really not going to talk about this? Does nobody else see the irony here?”

“Ah,” said Lumi. “ _ That _ .” The gems seated at the table did not seem to have caught onto Carnelian’s objection. Lumi wanted nothing more than to glance back at Iris or Pearl to gage their reaction, but instinct told her that it would be a sign of weakness.

Carnelian took Lumi’s silence as an invitation to continue. “Yes, ‘ _ That _ .’ We’re all sitting around this table acting like it’s perfectly normal for a half-human to plot the extermination of her own species.”

Lumi kept her expression carefully blank, but the gems seated at the table fidgeting nervously.

“You are speaking to a Diamond!” said Iris Agate, indignantly.

“It’s alright, Iris,” said Lumi, not taking her eyes off of Carnelian. “My father was human, yes, but surely you haven’t forgotten who my mother was? It was by White Diamond’s  _ own hand _ that the rebellion was wiped out at the end of the war. You don’t think I could do the same?”

“You are not White Diamond. You’re… I don’t know what you are. When Yellow Diamond assigned me to you did she tell you that I fought in the war? I was on Earth. I saw humans up close. They were just as squishy and pathetic as the rest of the life on that planet. Why White Diamond would give her gem to something so weak while she’s dormant I will never know.”

At that, Lumi stood up. There was no discernible change in her expression, but everyone in the room froze. Even Carnelian sensed that she had gone too far. Slowly, painfully slowly, Lumi made her way around the table. In the stillness, the only sounds that were heard were her footfalls as her heels clacked against the floor and the low swishing of her cape. It was as if even the ambient noise of the ship around them was afraid to interrupt her. Carnelian and Lumi never took their eyes off of each other as she approached, even when Lumi was standing just inches away.

“You’re right about one thing,” began Lumi, “I’m not my mother. If I were, you would have been shattered by now. Or possibly worse. I can only assume that’s what gave you the bravado for that display just now.”

Carnelian’s eyes darted around the room for a moment, but she made no move to retreat.

“Fortunately for you,” Lumi continued, “I think that shattering you would be a waste. I’d rather give us a chance to understand each other, let you know you can know me. Fair?”

Carnelian nodded vigorously.

“Excellent!” said Lumi, pacing back and forth forcing Carnelian to turn her chair around to keep her in line of sight. “My father always said that my mother had the most beautiful eyes across two galaxies. I think he was a little disappointed that I didn’t inherit them from her. The diamond shaped pupils certainly would have been exotic. What color are they now, by the way? I can’t exactly see them myself.”

“Uh,” said Carnelian, thrown off by the sudden change in tone, “Red?”

Lumi nodded. “I assume I got that quirk from her. Yellow and Blue never mentioned her eyes changing color when she got emotional, but I don’t think she got emotional very often in the first place.”

Lumi gave Carnelian a moment to ask what the red eyes  _ meant _ , but Carnelian did not take the bait.

“But that’s not the only thing unique about my eyes. I also got her ability to see gems for who they truly are. Everything about you is written right there on you light spectrum for me to see. I can see how the yellow heat of Emerald’s gem is tempered by blue’s coolness. It’s a balance that gives her an impressive amount of control over her command and her emotions. That’s something  _ you  _ could certainly learn from.”

Carnelian bowed her head, sheepishly.

“I can see Nephrite’s anxiousness. She is away from her crew and out of her element. She’s afraid of what may happen to her and to them while they are separated. Her fears are unfounded. She’s trained her crew well, and she deserves to be here.”

“Oh, thank you,” said Nephrite in a tiny voice.

“As for you,” Carnelian flinched as Lumi’s attention returned to her. “I hardly need my mother’s vision to see the real you. It’s etched into your face as well as your gem. All you’ve ever known is fighting. For as long as you’ve been alive, your survival has always depended on your personal strength, and the strength of those you have fought with. You’ve seen how a single mistake from a commanding officer can cause you to lose a battle. Or a friend.”

Carnelian didn’t need to reply.

“But there’s more to it, isn’t there?” Lumi studied Carnelian carefully. “You were at the Beta Kindergarten on Earth.”

“You could have gotten that from my service record.”

“Is that what I did?” asked Lumi, suddenly the school teacher. “No matter. That’s what you’re really afraid of, isn’t it? Another group of soldiers left to fend for themselves, another slapped together rescue operation, more friends lost to your commanding officer’s - to  _ my  _ \- foolishness.”

“The Kindergarten was surrounded by Crystal Gems when the Quartzes started to emerge. We tried to get to them, but Rose’s army was expecting us. It took us an entire day and night just to make a hole in the line. The only reason we didn’t lose the whole Kindergarten that day was because of Jasper.” Carnelian didn’t feel the need to add a designation. “She kept the Crystal Gems out and gave us time to push our way through.”

“Your commanders failed you that day. The Kindergarten should never have fallen into Rose’s hands, and the only reason your mission didn’t end in catastrophe was because one soldier happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

Carnelian nodded, not meeting Lumi’s eyes.

“Now there’s something you need to understand about me. Do you know why the Crystal Gems were so successful?”

Everyone at the table stared at Lumi, dumbfounded. Behind them, Pearl and Iris exchanged a knowing smile.

“There were a variety of factors certainly, but many of them can essentially be summed up by one basic fact: Rose Quartz’s army was more adaptable than ours. Anybody who joined her found a purpose. She had far fewer Quartzes in her ranks, but she had plenty of soldiers, most famously the Renegade Pearl.”

“I thought the Renegade Pearl was a myth,” piped up Peridot, suddenly.

Lumi rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, how absurd to believe that a Pearl could fight. Pearl, would you mind showing off a bit?”

“Not at all, My Diamond.” Pearl’s gem glowed, and a shaft of white light extended out from her forehead further. And further.  _ And further _ .

“Are you  _ joking me? _ ” muttered Peridot.

Pearl grabbed the handle of the weapon, and the light coalesced to reveal a sword. If it could even be called that anymore. The double edged blade was as long as Pearl was tall, and wide enough to conceal her thin frame. The tip of the blade came together in a perfect diamond shape, forming a sharp point. The hilt guard and pommel were also adorned with White Diamond’s insignia. With surprising ease, Pearl lifted it into the air and twirled it around a few times. The grace of her movement was betrayed by the heavy  _ whoosh  _ that followed the blade as it cut through the air. 

With one final swing, Pearl jabbed the tip of the blade into the ground where it sank several inches. Pleased with the effect she’d had on the room, Pearl crossed her arms and leaned against the flat of the blade with one shoulder.

For the first time since she’d stood up, Carnelian had taken her attention fully away from Lumi to watch Pearl’s display. Lumi leaned down next to her. “My mother-” 

Carnelian flinched. Up close, she could clearly see that Lumi’s eyes were still the same shade of red that they had been when she first stepped around the table.

“She could only see gems as they are. I see gems for what they could be. I see  _ Earth  _ for what it could be. The human race is in our way. We will wipe them out, complete our colony, and if anybody gets sentimental about that fact, then Pink Diamond’s Zoo is one warp jump away.”

Lumi took a step backwards and brought herself to her full height.

“I may not be my mother, Carnelian, but I am White Diamond. Do we understand each other?”

Carnelian nodded, mutely.

“Good. One last thing-”

_ BIIZZZZ _

Lumi pointed one finger at Carnelian, and a beam of light lanced forward, piercing her left shoulder. Carnelian could only yelp in surprise and pain.

_ “Don’t  _ **_ever_ ** _ mistake my humanity for a weakness again.” _

With a flick of her wrist, the beam sliced across Carnelian’s form, bisecting her and the back of the chair she was seated in. As Carnelian’s form evaporated, her gem landed safely in the spot where she had been sitting with a soft  _ whomp _ . A moment later the top half of her chair fell backwards with a clatter.

Lumi stepped forward, theatrically clearing the smoke from Carnelian’s dissipated form away from her face, and bent down to pick up her gem. She turned it around in her hand until she was satisfied that it was undamaged and turned to see how the room had reacted.

Peridot and Nephrite were both looked at the gem in Lumi’s hand like they expected it to jump up and bite them. Across the table, Emerald gave her a look of approval while Lapis merely looked content that the whole episode was over. 

In the back of the room, Pearl had an entirely too neutral look on her face, which Lumi recognized as a sign of trouble. Iris, by contrast, was practically beaming with pride. Of the two of them, Lumi wasn’t sure which reaction she prefered.

“You all understand our goal here?” asked Lumi.

There was a disjointed muttering of, “Yes, My Diamond.”

“And you all understand what is  _ expected  _ of you?” asked Lumi.

“Yes, My Diamond!”

A sudden inspiration struck Lumi.

“Very good. Pearl?”

Before Pearl could reply, Lumi’s own voice answered, “Yes, My Diamond?”

Like a ghost, the bleached white Pearl emerged from the center of the table. Everyone seated jumped backwards in surprise, yelling a smattering of confused oaths. Peridot fell backwards over her own chair. Lapis jumped up into the air and stayed there, held aloft by bubbles of water that she summoned from the gem at her ankle. 

Lumi paid them no mind as she presented Carnelian’s gem to the newcomer. “Take her back to the throne room and allow her to reform. It will be a few hours before we reach Sol’s gravity well. That should give her enough time.

“Of course, My Diamond!” Nobody but Pearl noticed Lumi mouthing along with White Pearl as she spoke. The ghostly Pearl cupped the gem in both of her hands, and sank back into the table.

If Lumi had to live with the creeping existential horror of having her mother’s Pearl forever lodged in her psyche, she was at least going to get some laughs in where she could. Nephrite was now hiding behind her chair, while Peridot was picking up hers. Lapis and Emerald had more or less regained their composure, but they were still eyeing the table suspiciously. In the back of the room, Iris looked perplexed more than anything. Pearl on the other hand…

Pearl was looking at Lumi with unmasked  _ horror _ . 

Oh.

_ Oh, no. _

This wasn’t what Lumi wanted. Pearl had seen Lumi use her mother’s Pearl to pull one over on the Diamonds plenty of times. Did it really make so much of a difference now that she knew…?

Yes. Yes, of course it did. The other gems in the room only saw the White Pearl as an eerie reminder of White Diamond’s power, but it had been what, a couple of hours since Lumi admitted she was parading around the corpse of a Pearl? And now here she was using her for a cheap jump scare.

Lumi forgot where she was for a moment as she tried to think of something to say to Pearl, but nothing came to her. The sound of Peridot’s chair banging against the floor as she uprighted it brought her back to the present.

“Right… Right. I’ll be in my quarters until we reach Earth’s star system. Dismissed.” Without another word, Lumi turned and left the room, avoiding Pearl’s gaze.

Lumi’s room on the ship was much as it had been on Homeworld, minus the window. She had her shoes off before the door even finished closing behind her. She would  _ not  _ be wearing high heels when the real work started on the colony. Now that she was here, Lumi wasn’t sure what to do with herself. She wanted to find Pearl and talk to her, but she still had no idea what she could say. Taking a nap might be wise given the work that was ahead of her, but there was no way she could sleep now.

As Lumi stepped into the middle of the room, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. It was the mirror from the makeup stand up against the wall. Oh yeah, Pearl had made a detour to drop that off before they launched, hadn’t she? That was something Lumi could do to kill time. She could get out of this blasted makeup. Lumi sat down and was just about to look around for the makeup remover when the sight of her own reflection made her jump.

_ Her eyes had gone completely  _ **_white_ ** _. _

The only reason she could even make out her irises against the whites of her eyes was because her pupils almost shone with an even brighter shade of white. Had that… happened before? Pearl and Iris had described them as going  _ silver  _ \- she’d seen that herself when she was able to get to a mirror quickly enough - but white?  _ WHITE  _ white? And she was quite sure that her  _ pupils  _ had never changed color along with the irises.

Lumi slammed her eyes shut.  _ It’s just because I was in charge of the meeting _ , she told herself,  _ or it’s from using Her Pearl. It’s not like I’m… I’m… _

_ Doing exactly what she would do _ , she finished, intrusively.

_ I’m not, though _ , she protested.  _ My mother agreed with Yellow to destroy the Earth, I’m trying to save it. _

_ Yes, by terrorizing the gems underneath you. Just like she would. _

_ Do you think  _ SHE  _ would have let that Carnelian live after what she said about me? _

_ That just means you’re weak. _

_ That’s  _ **_not_ ** _ true. _

Lumi took a deep breath and tried to regain control of her thoughts.  _ You’re stressed because you upset Pearl _ , she told herself.  _ Calm down, and figure it out from there _ .

Lumi opened her eyes again. Still no change. How long did her eyes take to change color anyway? She realized she had no idea. She had tried making herself happy or mad while looking in a mirror, but it never seemed to work when she was watching it. Regardless, between the white eyes and the black makeup, Lumi looked much too much like her mother for comfort.

Lumi tried to look for the makeup remover, but every time she looked down, the light reflecting off her gem would catch her attention again. After darting her eyes back and forth between her reflection and one of her desk drawers three or four times, Lumi rested her chin on her hand and gave herself a humorless smile.

“Can’t even trust your own reflection, Starlight?”

Lumi paused.  _ ‘Starlight’? Where did  _ **_that_ ** _ come from? _

Forget the remover, this was getting too weird. Lumi rubbed at her eyes with her gloved hands. Mascara stung her eyes, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t feeling particularly loyal to them anyway. She licked the back of her wrist and rubbed it against her mouth to get the lipstick off. 

_ Why’d I have to go with such dark makeup? _ she wondered.

So far, all she’d managed to do was make herself look like a raccoon.

_ You know why. _

_ Don’t. _

The makeup was coming off. Slowly. But by now her white shoulder length faux sleeves were smeared with black up to the elbows.

_ Ignoring the truth won’t make it go away. _

_ It will if you’d shut up about it. _

_ You wanted to look like her. _

Lumi balled up her gloves and continued rubbing away at her face while her gem sparkled on her forehead.

_ Just because I wanted to look like her when I was a kid, that doesn’t mean I’ll become her. _

_ Right. You just have the entirety of her being replacing your brain. I’m sure that’s fine. _

_ That’s not how it works. _

_ And you know that how? _

_ I’m not my mother. _

_ So you’ve said. How’d you put earlier? ‘I’m not my mother, but I am White Diamond’? _

_ Yes. _

Lumi was running out of white cloth and her white eyes still stood out against her blackened face.

_ ‘I’m not White Diamond, but I am White Diamond.’ Yeah, sounds like you’ve got it all figured out. _

“Hey, makeup’s off,” said Lumi out loud, and still gripping a stained crumpled up glove, smashed the mirror with one clenched fist.

Lumi sat staring at the wall, panting. When she couldn’t hear the blood pounding in her ears anymore, she pulled back her fist to examine it. No cuts. Her knuckles hadn’t even bruised. Must have been a clean hit. Lucky. Or alien physiology. How would she know the difference?

Lumi stood up and immediately wanted to sit back down. She compromised by leaning her back against the wall. She found the panel near her hand and tapped at it clumsily to bring the lights down to pitch blackness. The dark was strangely comforting. Or perhaps it wasn’t so strange with the spectre of her mother hanging over her thoughts at the moment. 

Lumi could sit here a while, she decided, and slid down the wall until she was curled up on the floor. She wasn’t needed anywhere. Pearl would come to find her eventually. For the time being it was fine to just sit and not think for a while.

Elsewhere on the ship, far away from each other, two Pearls sat in much the same position as Lumi. One simply copied Lumi’s movements, unaware of the world around her. The other stayed nearer to Lumi than she knew. She worried for her Diamond, for her friend, but also for herself. Unlike the ghostly white Pearl, she was all too aware of the world around her. And their places in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's obviously a lot to talk about in this chapter, but the one thing I want to focus on is the serial numbers for all of the gems in Lumi's crew. I had a lot of fun coming up with those. Almost all of them involve some sort of reference (Nephrite's is obviously the easiest to decipher) but a few of them hint at serious world building as well. I'm curious to see how many people can read my mind and figure out what I was thinking with some of them.
> 
> Also, as I alluded to in the opening notes: the next TWO chapters of the fic are pretty much done, so you'll be seeing those in the next couple of days!


	7. A Talk in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl and Lumi discuss their feelings after the excitement of the trial. Lumi has an epiphany.

The first thing Pearl noticed when she entered Lumi’s darkened room was the high heels right inside the door.

“Always with the shoes,” she muttered, kicking them off to the side.

“Sorry,” came a reply from the darkness.

Pearl nearly tripped over the shoes **again** as she lit up her gem and whipped around to find the source of the voice. “ _Stars_ , Lumi! I thought you were a- Lumi?”

Pearl found Lumi sitting in a ball next to her bed. Lumi shielded her eyes as Pearl’s light hit her face. “Hey!”

Pearl kept her light focused on Lumi as she studied her. Coming to some sort of conclusion, she dimmed her gem and let out a sigh. “You've been thinking about your mother again.” It wasn't a question.

“Is it that obvious?”

“It is to me.”

Pearl edged her way along the wall until she reached the control panel. She briefly entertained the urge to bring the lights up to full power, but resisted the temptation and settled for dim light.

“Lumi, I- what happened?” Pearl noticed the broken mirror for the first time.

Lumi looked down at the ground. “When I- wait, what color are my eyes right now?”

“Huh? Oh Stars, they're red,” said Pearl stepping towards her.

“What?!” said Lumi, alarmed. “But I wasn't _that_ mad at you for shining a light in my face!”

“Not that kind of red! I mean… what's the word? Bloodshot! That's it. Your irises are back to black.”

“Okay,” said Lumi, uncurling slightly.

“Alright, seriously, what did you do?” asked Pearl again.

“I couldn't get my makeup off, so I punched the mirror.”

“Let me see your hand.”

“It's fine.”

“Let me see it.” Pearl sat down next to Lumi and took her hand. She examined it thoroughly, using her gem for extra light and feeling the bones across the knuckles and palm. She then grabbed Lumi's other hand and repeated the process.

“That's not even the-”

“I remember what happened when we jumped off of Pink's tower,” said Pearl. “You fooled Iris with that trick, but it won't fool me.”

Lumi chuckled at the memory of it

“Should have known better than to leave you alone after the meeting.”

“It's my fault. I made you upset.”

“I still should have checked on you sooner.”

“I should have thought about how you'd react to my mother’s Pearl after what I told you.”

“I'm a Pearl, I should have been here.”

“Yeah, well I'm a Diamond. I should be better than… all this,” Lumi gestured around vaguely.

The two of them sat in awkward silence for a moment.

Pearl gave in first. “I still don't know how to feel about her. I know I shouldn't be mad at you. It's not your fault. But she's not just your mother's Pearl, she's _your_ Pearl too. Just like I am.”

“I'd never do that to you.”

“I know that, but every time I look at her, I think about how easily the roles could have been reversed. How easily I could have ended up being the puppet.”

Pearl was interrupted by something very heavy thumping against her head. She looked up and was greeted by Lumi’s face nuzzling up against hers, eyes threatening to overflow with tears at any moment.

“I’m sorry,” she choked out.

“Oh, Lumi.” Pearl let herself get swallowed by the embrace as Lumi wrapped around her protectively.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Oh no, were you imagining me as her?” Pearl asked, trying not to sound amused.

Pearl felt Lumi nodding against her shoulder blade.

“I’m not going anywhere, silly.” Pearl struggled to unpin one of her arms so she could pat Lumi on the back. “Instead, imagine what it’ll be like when we get to meet White’s Pearl for real.”

“You think that’ll happen?”

“I know it will.”

“Okay.” Lumi stayed curled around Pearl for another minute or two. In the back of her mind, she was still aware of the White Pearl stationed in the throne room where Lumi had left her, but now the idea of meeting her - of talking _to_ her and not simply _through_ her - gave Lumi a warm feeling.

“Now,” said Pearl, pulling herself loose of the cuddle pile, “are you ready to talk about what _really_ got you worked up at the meeting?”

“I…” Lumi hesitated, “I said I was sorry about the stunt with my mother’s Pearl, didn’t I?”

“Lumi, you’re sweet, but you did not punch yourself in the mirror because you were worried about my feelings.”

“Hmph.”

“ _Lumi…_ ” said Pearl, sternly. “You almost shattered that Carnelian.”

“What? No I didn’t!”

“When you cut her form in half, where did you start?” Pearl waved her finger through the air, imitating the slashing motion Lumi had made to cleave the quartz soldier in two.

“Uhh… the shoulder?”

“Uh huh. And where was her gemstone?” ask Pearl, tapping her own gem on her forehead.

“Oh, come on.”

“Well?”

“It was on her _other_ shoulder.”

“Did you think about that before you shot her?”

“I…”

“Here’s what I saw: The whole time you were talking to her, whether you were being intimidating, or sympathetic, or inspiring, you eyes stayed that same angry red. For a minute there it _sounded_ like you were ready to let her go, but your eyes told a different story. You were toying with her. You just wanted to say your peace before blasting her.”

“I mean, I couldn’t let her go unpunished. She called me weak in front of the entire crew. That’s not something anybody, let alone, you know, _a Diamond_ could let stand.”

“Yeah, but that’s not why you almost shattered her.”

“Huh?”

“She implied that your mother would come back.”

“I…” Lumi thought back to the moment before she had stalked around the conference table.

“‘Dormant’,” said Pearl, simply.

_Why White Diamond would give her gem to something so weak while she’s_ **_dormant_ ** _I will never know_.

Lumi curled up around herself again. “Dad always insisted that she wanted me to be _me_ but I just…” Lumi shook her head, “I don't get it.”

“You don't trust him?”

Lumi sighed. “I honestly don't know. Dad was always… _weird_ about her. I could never get a read on how much he believed her hype.”

“Her… _hype_?”

“You know, her being this absolutely perfectly flawless godlike being. I guess she did pretty much meet the definition of a god, but still. And then on the other hand, there’s Yellow and Blue, who were always so scared of her. _ARE_ so scared of her. Remember how they could never punish me themselves when I was a kid? They always made Dad do it, like they didn't think it was worth the risk.”

Pearl looked at Lumi thoughtfully.

“What if she does ‘wake up’, Pearl? What if she decides I was a nice experiment, but she wants her gem back now? Would I have to fight her to keep it? _Could_ I fight her off if I had the chance? Or would she just snuff me out and take over like she did with her Pearl?”

This time Lumi was nearly bowled over as Pearl threw her arms around Lumi’s shoulders and buried her face in her neck.

“Now I got you doing it, didn’t I? Imagining me as her Pearl?”

Lumi felt Pearl nodding against her shoulder blade.

“We’ve got to stop scaring each other like this.”

Lumi felt Pearl nod much more vigorously. Lumi reached up and took Pearl’s hand in her own and patted Pearl’s head with the other.

“Stars, we’re a mess,” muttered Lumi. Lumi felt Pearl shaking against her. A few musical notes of laughter escaped from her embrace and Lumi answered with a full throated laugh of her own.

Pearl eventually pulled away and looked over Lumi, smiling. “Well, you certainly can’t conquer the Earth looking like this. Come on.”

Lumi let herself get hauled to her feet and brought over to the now broken makeup stand. Most of the glass had fallen behind or on the desk, but they still had to step carefully around to avoid the few shards that had landed on the floor.

Pearl pulled a bottle of solvent out of the desk (bottom _left_ drawer, of course it was where it was supposed to be) and set about finishing Lumi’s frantic makeup removal.

“You ever thought about just changing your appearance to look like makeup instead of applying it manually? You’ve got a decent talent for shapeshifting,” asked Pearl.

“I could do that? I thought gems couldn’t change their color scheme when they shifted.”

“Most of them can’t, but,” Pearl closed her eyes, and with a shimmer, she instantly appeared to be wearing a deep red eyeshadow complimenting her navy blue eyes, “it’s like you said. White light contains all light.”

Lumi only had a moment to look surprised before Pearl resumed her assault on Lumi’s leftover makeup.

“I think I’ll pass for now,” said Lumi, eying the broken mirror again, “I don’t really like what the makeup did for me.”

Pearl followed her gaze and grimaced. “Me neither.”

The pair sat in silence while Pearl finished her work.

“Wait, that’s it!” shouted Lumi, out of the blue.

Pearl jumped backward in surprise. “What?!”

Lumi got up and started pacing. “That’s how Rose Quartz got past all of Pink’s guards: _she wasn’t Rose Quartz at all!_ ”

“What, I… what?” said Pearl, still trying to grasp the new thread of the conversation.

“Pink Diamond!” said Lumi. “Someone like my mother could have walked right into her camp, shapeshifted into a perfect copy of Rose where nobody could see her, and then shattered Pink!”

“Your mother shattered Pink Diamond?” asked Pearl.

“Or a Moonstone, or a White Topaz, or something,” added Lumi, quickly.

“Right…” said Pearl, skeptically. “Is this a real theory, or are you just hoping for something to save Steven from Yellow Diamond?”

“Can’t it be both things?” asked Lumi.

“Hmm… well, it’s possible I suppose, but it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. If Rose Quartz sent an assassin, why bother having her look like Rose?”

“Maybe Rose didn’t send them. Maybe they just wanted to frame her. Would anybody on Homeworld have believed Rose Quartz if she said she was innocent?”

“But why would somebody on Homeworld want- you’re still on your mother, aren’t you?”

“Hey! It makes sense, though, doesn’t it? The war had gone on for a thousand years. Blue Diamond cared about Pink, and I’m sure Yellow did too (in her own way). So if Pink was embarrassing the Authority, my mother couldn’t just get rid of her.

“Enter Rose Quartz: the perfect suspect. She was already arch enemies with Pink Diamond. Shoot, maybe she was _glad_ to take credit for shattering her, even if she didn’t have anything to do with it. Of course, then my mother rallied the Diamonds and destroyed the rebellion anyway, silencing anybody who could disagree with the official story.”

“There is a certain logic to that plot,” said Pearl, diplomatically.

“I sense a ‘but’ coming on.”

“ _But_ , I’m worried you’re a little too eager to blame your mother just because you want her to be guilty.”

“Maybe, but it’s like that Zircon said: somebody with the authority of a Diamond helped assassinate Pink Diamond.” Lumi held up three fingers and began counting down. “If Blue did it, then I have no idea why she was so insistent on getting the truth out of Steven at the trial. Yellow acts tough, but she’s got a soft side to her. I don’t think she’d have it in her to have Pink killed. That just leaves…” said Lumi holding up a single finger.

“Okay, okay,” conceded Pearl, “It’s something to go on, but how do you think we can prove it?”

“No idea!” said Lumi, cheerfully.

“Okay, well, while you’re thinking about that, sit down, I’m almost done.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Pearl touched up the last few smudges of makeup and gave Lumi a nod of approval.

“Well, these gloves are ruined,” said Pearl, picking up the makeup stained faux sleeves off the desk. “As long as you’re dropping things that remind you of your mother, did you want to get rid of the cape, too?” Lumi held up an arm to look at the white cape with shimmering black lining.

“I like the cape. It makes me feel… important.”

“You’re a Diamond,” said Pearl, flatly.

“A girl’s got to do some things just for her,” said Lumi, airily.

Pearl rolled her eyes.

“Definitely skipping the high heels, though,” said Lumi.

“Very well,” said Pearl, pulling a pair of black slip-ons out of her gem.

“Hey, what’s Iris doing anyway? I’d have thought she’d be here by now to get me to do… something productive.”

“She’s on the command deck. Making sure we don’t fly into a planet or something.”

“She knows that the ship will stop automatically if we hit a gravity well, right?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think your takeoff inspired much confidence.”

“That… fine,” grumbled Lumi. Something caught her attention from White Pearl’s perception. “Oh, Carnelian’s reformed. Right on time.”

“How…”

“I’m keeping an eye on her,” said Lumi.

Pearl’s face went through a range of emotions as she processed what Lumi had just said. “That is a terrible joke.”

“I know. Oh… I think that Carnelian is looking forward to this mission.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’ll see. Have her meet me on the bridge. I’m going to let Iris know I didn’t set us on course to crash into a sun. Earth awaits!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's fun writing Lumi getting things wrong. Something I wanted to avoid when setting this story so far back in SU's timeline is I didn't want it to feel like Lumi figured things out because she'd read ahead in the script. But she has some very good reasons to fixate on White Diamond, and so she's going to be barking up the wrong tree in the Pink Diamond Murder Mystery for a while. 
> 
> When I was coming up with their relationship, I very much did NOT want Lumi and Pearl to be a romantic couple just because I didn't want it to be a repeat of RosePearl. Instead Pearl became something between a big sister and a moirail, which is a dynamic I'm very happy with.


	8. Opportunity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lumi arrives at Earth's moon and discovers something interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter got out of hand. This was SUPPOSED TO just be the introduction to Lumi's arrival at the moon base, but I started writing it right after news broke about the Opportunity Rover, and so this chapter is dedicated to that.

Iris Agate was nervously watching the stars race by when Lumi strode onto the command deck.

“How close are we?” she asked by way of greeting.

Iris jumped at the sound of Lumi’s voice beside her.

Lumi nearly doubled over with laughter. “Pearl wasn’t kidding about you being anxious.”

“We are traveling at a speed of a million light years per hour, which is… well, I don’t know how much faster exactly, but it’s **_a lot_ ** faster than the speed of light. So yes, I’m anxious. My Diamond.”

“The spatial warping around the ship keeps us safe from any random debris. And if we were going to hit something big like a planet, the autopilot would stop us before we got too deep into its gravity well. Besides, if you can’t trust me to fly this thing, who can you trust?” Lumi asked with a grin.

Iris Agate looked mildly ill.

“Anyway,” Lumi hopped up onto the dais from which she controlled the ship and brought up a view screen. “It looks like we’ll be reaching Earth in three… two…”

Iris and Lumi watched as the stars ceased their motion around the ship. There floating directly in front of them, taking up most of the view screen was…

“Well would you look at that?” muttered Lumi.

Half the planet shone blue and green in the light of the sun. On the other side of the planet, lights dotted the night where humanity had successfully pushed back the darkness. The blue marble. Earth.

“It is rather beautiful,” said Iris.

“Mm hm,” agreed Lumi. As she spoke, Lumi surreptitiously recorded a still image of the view screen. Beautiful though it was, Earth was not destined to look like this for long. “But first thing’s first.” Lumi took control of the ship and redirected her attention to Earth’s nearby moon. With a minor course correction, they were off.

“Iris, find the exact coordinates of the Moon base, I want to head there as directly as possible.”

“Sending them to you now,” said Iris, pulling up a screen of her own and tapping at it a few times. As they neared Earth’s satellite, something began to flash red in front of her. “If I might suggest a detour, My Diamond, the scanners picked up something interesting. Latitude -0.6875, Longitude 23.47293.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not sure. Some sort of artificial object, but we didn’t leave anything on the moon besides the Diamond base.”

“Well, as long as the opportunity presents itself.”

The white ship skimmed along the lunar surface before the terrain dipped down into the dusky lowlands. Finally, the object came into view.

“What is that?” asked Iris.

“I have no idea.”

“You don’t? But it’s clearly a human… something.”

“Sure.”

“So…”

“So, I don’t know! Nothing Dad said about humanity suggested they could send stuff into space! From his descriptions, it sounded like humans were only starting to get the hang of atmospheric flight before he met mother.” The object certainly didn’t _look_ very impressive, whatever it was. It was little more than a flimsy metallic box held up by four spidery legs. “Hang on… are those… let me zoom in.”

Lumi brought the ship closer to the mysterious object and zoomed in on the ground around it. Imprinted in the lunar dust were hundreds of footprints left by pairs of heavy booted feet.

“Oh my Stars… They came here. Humans actually _came_ to the moon!”

“Umm, should I be impressed? Earth is right over there.”

“Should you be… Iris think about it! When Pink Diamond was here, humans were barely using written language. One hundred years ago, they were using steam power to get around the oceans. And now they’re out here exploring space! _Humans can’t even breathe in space!_ I wonder if they’ve made it to another planet yet?”

“When you put it like that, they have come a long way. It’s almost a shame for it to end here.”

“Not necessarily. There are still the humans at the Zoo. Hmm… I wonder if we started teaching them about our technology, would they be able to come up with advances for us at this rate? That’s an intriguing thought.

“Honestly, it’s probably a good thing we got here when we did. If their technology has advanced this much in 5000 years, how long do you think it’d take them to pose a serious threat to our empire? Two thousand years? One thousand? Maybe even less?”

Iris Agate cocked her head in contemplation. “Oh my…”

“Exactly.”

“Scanners are showing another five or six blips that could be landing sites, plus this one here. One of them looks close enough to the Diamond base that we’ll be able to see it from there.”

“Awesome. Before we go, it looks like something’s buried about 10 meters from the landing legs. Let me just…” Lumi pressed a few buttons, and an energy beam shot out from the ship and scooped up the object and surrounding dust. The beam dragged the ball of dirt up through the air and brought it into the command deck through the eye of the ship. There was a _whomp_ and a puff of dust as the energy beam deposited its contents in the middle of the room.

“ _COUGH_ Did you have to _HAK_ bring is straight here?” asked Iris between coughs.

“Sorry,” said Lumi, “Got excited.” She jumped down onto the floor and began digging through the lunar dust until she found a red, white, and blue cloth hanging from a horizontal pole.

“Oh. It’s the… what was it called? The United States flag. Guess they were the ones who sent people here.”

“The United States?”

“It’s a country. That’s a, uh… a division of human civilization. They don’t all live under one Authority like gems do.”

“Sounds chaotic.”

“Immensely so. Anyway, I’m keeping this,” said Lumi shaking dust off of the American flag.

“Is that where your father was fro-”

“How come we’ve stopped in the middle of nowhere?” It was Pearl, coming in from the hallway.

“Pearl! Check this out! Humans came to the moon!” Lumi waved the flag around proudly.

“Wow. Forgive me for interrupting, My Diamond,” said Pearl, all business, “but I’ve brought Carnelian to the bridge as you requested.” Pearl turned to see that Carnelian was still some distance behind her, apparently afraid to cross the threshold into the room. “And I see what you meant about her looking forward to this,” she whispered.

Lumi nodded and handed the flag over to Pearl. Pearl looked it up and down as she stepped off to the side and Lumi beckoned Carnelian onto the bridge.

Lumi waited while Carnelian marched stiffly towards her. When she was a short distance away, Carnelian stopped and awkwardly tried to salute and bow at the same time.

“My Diamond!” she began, “I would like to apologize for my behavior at the briefing. What I said was out of line and disgraceful.”

“Stand up,” said Lumi.

Carnelian straightened her back, instantly.

“You’ve changed your uniform.”

Carnelian looked down. Her outfit was much the same as it had been at the briefing, with one exception. The yellow diamond on her chest had been replaced with a white one.

“You wish for your assignment from Yellow Diamond to become permanent?”

“If you would allow it, My Diamond. Earth is- I lost a lot of comrades during the war. I’d like to believe it was for something.”

Lumi smiled. “I do not mind soldiers questioning my decisions. In fact, I believe it will be necessary in the future. However, I will not tolerate anyone questioning my capability due to the circumstances of my birth, which I believe has been made clear.”

“Yes, My Diamond.”

Lumi held out her hand to Carnelian. Carnelian looked down at it in confusion, and then up at Lumi, Iris, and Pearl, who were all giving her encouraging smiles. Carnelian reached out and accepted Lumi’s hand with her own.

“Welcome,” said Lumi, “to the Court of White Diamond.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are some fun science facts:
> 
> If my math is right, one million light-years per hour is about 8.8 BILLION times the speed of light, or 2.6e15 kilometers per second. 
> 
> It's also worth noting that this is the BARE MINIMUM speed they could be going, in my estimation. This is assuming Homeworld is in the closest galaxy to ours (which it might not be) and that it takes two hours to get from Earth to Homeworld (which is on the long side, considering everything from Stuck Together through Lars' Head took place in a single night during the Wanted Arc). One Million Light-years per Hour is a nice round number though, so it's my go-to cruising speed for Lumi's ship.
> 
> Breathing moon dust will tear up your lungs. If Lumi were fully human (or if she were in a more realistic sci-fi setting) she'd probably be coughing up blood for a week after digging around in lunar dirt like that.
> 
> Every flag that the astronauts left on the moon has been bleached white by the sun... except for the Apollo 11 flag. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planted the flag too close to the lunar lander for their famous photograph, and so it was knocked over and buried in the sand when they took off, thus shielding it from the sun's UV rays. I love the irony of that. Lumi managed to find THE ONE FLAG that hasn't been warped into a White sheet on the moon. (Does it still count as irony if I, the author, am the one who orchestrated this chain of events? I'm going to say yes.)
> 
> I feel a little bit guilty about teasing the story of Lumi's dad, so I will give you this: you WILL get to see his story eventually. I'm planning on dedicating a chapter or two to flashbacks involving White Diamond and J. (and since I'm "planning on" one or two chapters, odds are it'll end up being three or four). I've dropped enough hints at Lumi's age range by now to suggest that she is somewhere between the ages of 60 and 100, although her physical and mental age is obviously considerably younger, roughly in the late teens (intriguing, eh?). You'll just have to be patient for more details!


	9. Zodiac

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lumi and her team enter the Diamond tower on the moon to obtain vital information.

After their detour at the lunar landing site, Lumi took the ship directly to the Diamond tower. Admittedly, she was mildly interested in seeing what else humans had left on the moon, but not enough to further delay their mission. Once they had reached their destination, the crew split up into two teams. Lumi, Pearl, Iris, and Peridot went into the Diamond base to retrieve the data they needed. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew, Nephrite, Carnelian, Emerald, and Lapis Lazuli, stayed behind to prepare for an immediate departure for Earth upon their return.

Lumi had decided early on in the planning stages that she didn’t want the Crystal Gems noticing that a Diamond was on their trail, so Nephrite’s landing ship, which was now housed inside a snug hangar within Lumi’s head ship, would be their main mode of transportation for the foreseeable future. Once Peridot had the Cluster’s location, the plan was for them to leave for earth as soon as possible so that Lapis could deal with that, while Carnelian and Emerald could begin their assessment of Earth’s defenses.

Lumi carried her team down to the moon’s surface in one of her large silver bubbles, and the door to the base opened for them without issue.

“Woah,” said Peridot as Lumi dropped the bubble around them.

“--ver -een -o a Diam--- -ase -efore? Wai-, who--s.” Around Lumi’s neck hung a pendant resembling a hollow sky blue geode. It gave an electronic trill when Lumi laid a finger over it, and the personalized forcefield around her withdrew into the geode. Her own bubbles were perfectly capable of protecting her from the vacuum of space, but Pearl and Iris both insisted that she use the atmospheric generator just in case.

“Anyway,” Lumi repeated, “I take it you’ve never been to a Diamond base before?”

“I’ve never had the honor, White Diamond.”

The three taller figures lit up their gems and looked around the room. Peridot’s gem was located between her shoulder blades, and so she had to settle for using a beam of light from one limb enhancer, while her other arm was occupied by a large carrying case.

“Wow,” said Peridot, rushing over to one of the paintings on the wall, “I’ve never seen a depiction of Yellow Diamond this old before! She’s only holding nine of her colonies!”

“The other five were conquered in Era-2,” confirmed Lumi. “She brought me to the Schedar colony while they were finishing the last of the spires.”

“Does that mean Blue Diamond…” Peridot rushed to the other side of the room, Lumi struggling to keep up. Unlike the full blooded (so to speak) gems, Lumi’s body had not adjusted to lunar gravity automatically, and so she had to awkwardly bound across the room in the wake of the excitable technician.

“Yes! She’s missing the Antares colony!”

“Mm hm,” agreed Lumi. “I’m afraid the other two murals are up to date, though.”

“What do you… oh.” Peridot, as well as the other gems in the room followed the direction of Lumi’s gaze. Their lights fell upon the painting of Pink Diamond holding aloft her single solitary colony.

A heavy silence fell over the room as the four of them studied Pink Diamond’s mural, immortal in a way that she herself could not be.

“I wish I could have met her,” murmured Lumi.

“My Diamond?” asked Iris.

“It’s silly, I know. If she had succeeded in completing her colony, I probably never would have been born. I certainly wouldn’t have been born human. But still, she once stood right where I’m standing now. Eager to complete her first colony, eager to prove herself to Yellow, to Blue, to my mother. What would she say to me, if she could be her now? Would she have advice for running my first colony? What could she have told me about White Diamond that Yellow and Blue haven’t? If my mother really did create her, then that means she was like a sister to me, even if I was born too late to meet her. Why did she have to be shattered, Iris?”

“I don’t know how to answer that,” said Iris.

“No. I don’t think anyone does.”

As another awkward silence settled in, Peridot backed away from the group. With as much cheer as she could muster, she focused on the fourth and final mural. “Annnnd, of course we can’t forget about the Unwavering, Enduring, Indomitable, Unrelenting, Unbreakable-”

“I think ‘Unrelenting’ is one of Yellow’s titles,” interrupted Lumi, “but yes, there is no forgetting about White Diamond.”

It was plain to see that the little green gem was trying to cheer Lumi up, or at least lighten the mood overall. Admittedly, she had _profoundly_ misunderstood what the sight of Lumi’s mother was likely to do for her mood, but her earnestness was enough to earn a small smile.

“She did leave behind quite a legacy. Homeworld held safely in her hands for untold millennia and more than a dozen colonies to her name.”

“ _You_ are part of that legacy too, you know,” answered Pearl coming up behind her.

“Heh, I suppose so.”

“And after Pink Diamond’s colony is complete, it won’t belong before you’ll have murals just like this. You’d better start thinking of what pose you want for them.”

“Oh Stars, I didn’t think of that. Yellow and Blue always use these poses for formal entrances. I’m going to be stuck with whatever I pick for the rest of eternity!”

“Well, the longer we talk about it here, the longer it’ll be before you need to make that decision, My Diamond,” said Iris, pointedly.

“You’re right, let’s get to the top of the tower and get what we need. Looks like the Crystal Gems left the stairs activated when they came here.” Aided by the moon’s low gravity, Lumi bounded up the steps five at a time around the edge of the room, through the observation level, and finally to the clear dome at the top of the tower.

Peridot took one look at the shattered computer console and laughed. “Ha! This isn’t even the actual computer! Those pebbles just smashed the interface!”

“Do you even need to fix it to get the information we need then?” asked Lumi.

“If I had the right connectors I wouldn’t, but I came here expecting a serious repair job, so we’re going to have to do this the slow way.” Peridot opened her case containing several round robonoids. They sprang to life at Peridot’s direction and set about spraying the computer console with repair gel. “This may take a few minutes,” said Peridot.

Lumi nodded and looked around the lunar landscape. She could see miles of white terrain in all directions. Well. _Almost_ all directions. Her mother’s head ship was tall enough to stand level with the tower, and now appeared to be staring at them through the transparent canopy. Lumi grimaced and turned to face the other direction, but there was nothing to see across the vast empty surface of the moon. Iris had promised that one of the human landing sites would be visible from up here, but Lumi surmised that it must have been hiding behind her ship, since she couldn’t see it anywhere on the horizon.

When she couldn’t take the feeling of her ship’s eyes crawling up her back, Lumi declared, “I’m going to go down to the observation level and see if that orb still works.”

“I’ll come too,” said Pearl who was also doing her level best to avoid the eyes of the massive ship in the window.

In the reduced gravity, Lumi was able to jump down to the lower level without even relying on her gem powers to cushion the landing. Pearl started to walk down the stairs until she spotted Lumi giving her a bemused look. Blushing slightly, Pearl leapt gracefully from halfway up the staircase and landed next to Lumi.

“Well,” said Pearl, “the observation orb is clearly functional. Is there anything you wanted to look for in particular?”

“Honestly, I just wanted to get out from under the eyes of that ship.”

The pair giggled amongst themselves, hoping Iris Agate wouldn’t hear them.

“This thing will still come in handy once Peridot gives us some idea of where we need to focus our attention,” said Pearl, looking up at the ceiling. “Oh! Those are pretty.”

Lumi looked up and found the artwork that had caught Pearl’s attention. “Oh, it’s the Zodiac signs.”

“I… _think_ I remember your dad mentioning those, but…”

“It’s a set of twelve constellations that humans imagined as characters with stories behind them. They did that with star groups all over the night sky, but the Zodiac signs are important because they can only be seen at certain times of the year because of the way the Earth rotates around the sun. Pink Diamond must have noticed them too, if she had them painted here.

“A lot of different cultures ascribed different meanings to them throughout the ages. Like, my dad was born under Cancer,” Lumi pointed out an artistic rendering of an earth crab, “which supposedly makes him more loyal and sentimental about his family. I don’t know if there’s anything to it, but that part sounds like Dad.”

“What about you?”

“By the time I was born, Dad had been on Homeworld so long he’d lost track of the calendar on Earth. Besides, I don’t think it counts if you weren’t born there anyway.”

“Fascinating,” said Pearl earnestly.

“They’re drawn in a circle like that because that’s the order they appear in throughout the year. There’s Scorpio, as in a scorpion. That’s a kind of bug found on earth. Sagittarius is the Archer, but I have no idea why he’s always depicted as a centaur. Those aren’t a real thing on earth or anything, it’s just a mythological creature. Same with the Sea-goat for Capricorn. No idea who came up with that. Honestly, human mythology is weird sometimes. Ha! They painted Aquarius to look like a Lapis Lazuli. That’s appropriate. And it goes on and on from there.

“Actually… I wonder if the orb is accurate enough to show us what the night sky looks like from Earth right now.”

Lumi tapped the orb, and the room around them disappeared, replaced by a holographic view from earth. Pearl and Lumi now appeared to be standing on the front porch of a small house overlooking a sandy beach. Lumi looked down at the ocean below them, and then up at the massive multi-armed statue, which was holding the house they were now standing next to.

“Huh. That’s strange. This is how Jasper described the Crystal Gem base where they found Rose-slash-Steven. And that’s pretty close to where Aquamarine captured him. Why’d the orb default to this location?”

“Uh… Lumi?” whispered Pearl.

“Did Aquamarine stop here to scout out the planet when she was capturing humans? That would have been a clever move, but she never reported doing so.”

“ _Lumi_.”

“Could this be Steven’s house?” asked Lumi, peaking in the large front window. “It doesn’t look like anybody’s home but I do see a warp pad in the back.”

“ ** _Lumi!_ **” Pearl hissed, shaking Lumi’s arm.

“What?” Lumi looked over at Pearl, who’s eyes were glued to the sky out over the ocean.

Up above them, the ceiling had disappeared to make way for the holographic image of Earth… and yet the “painting” of Aquarius still remained suspended in mid air with her eyes closed, hanging from tendrils of water coming from her back while holding a bubble of water out in front of her. She wore a cropped top exposing her midriff, a long skirt, and bare feet.

She stayed in her pose, but as the silent seconds ticked on, she peaked one eye open to see what was happening below her.

Lumi locked eyes with "Aquarius".

“Uh oh,” said Lapis Lazuli.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You have NO IDEA how much fun I had reading the comments to chapter 8 knowing that this was coming. Remember how Iris said there "could be" another moon landing near the Diamond tower? I don't think that was an Apollo lander...
> 
> The gag about White Diamond's titles is a direct reference to the wonderful (but discontinued) webcomic New Home by Kibbles-Bits. The fact that Lumi's story exists is due in no small part to that comic and the friends I've made reading it.
> 
> Something interesting that's happened to Lumi over the years of me thinking about her is that she was originally conceived as a foil to Steven, but now she is as much (if not more so) a foil to Pink Diamond. It's not that Lumi herself has changed much, but the more we've learned about Pink, the more their similar upbringing has come into focus. It'll be interesting to explore that angle of her character once Pink's TRUE role in this story starts to come into play.
> 
> For the record, I'm not INTENTIONALLY writing Lumi to any particular star sign, but knowing me, she probably comes across as pretty Scorpio. 
> 
> Also, I'm pretty proud of myself for referencing the Zodiac without once bringing up Homestuck. Wait... Darn it!


	10. L vs L: Round 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You tried to trap Lapis Lazuli. Ya shouldn'tta did that.

Everybody stood frozen in place. Lapis stared down at the two visitors who had found her. Lumi and Pearl stared back up at the unexpected occupant. Lapis squinted at Pearl in confusion for a moment, but otherwise remained in the same position she had been while disguised as a painting.

“Did you find something interesting, My Diamond?” came Iris’s voice from somewhere above them.

“Wait, _Diamond?_ ” said Lapis. She looked at Lumi again, and her eyes widened in barely controlled panic.

“Wait-” shouted Lumi, but before she could utter another word, Lapis whipped her hand outward. The bubble of water that she had been holding in place shot towards the floor. Lumi and Pearl leapt to the side, but Lapis hadn’t been aiming for them. As it flew, the ball of water stretched out and sharpened into a vicious frozen spike that impaled the observation orb clean through and sank into the floor below.

The room they were in came back into view as the holographic image of the beach house sputtered out. Lapis’s head whipped back and forth while the tendrils she had been suspended from dislodged themselves from the wall and came together to form a pair of watery wings behind her. After a moment, Lapis spotted what she was looking for through the dying gasps of earth scenery: the exit.

Lapis kicked off the wall and propelled herself straight down towards the stairway leading into the antechamber and freedom. She had almost made it when a wide beam of light interposed itself between Lapis and the exit forcing her to backpedal in midair.

Lapis looked around furiously and saw Lumi, down on one knee with an outstretched hand emitting the shaft of light that now had Lapis trapped.

“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me what you’re doing here!” shouted Lumi, her eyes a stubborn shade of yellow. Next to her, Pearl finished getting to her feet and drew her sword from her gem.

“You will NOT keep me here!” Lapis’s wings arched behind her like a cornered animal, her face a mask of rage and desperation. Nevertheless, Lumi kept her beam of light in between Lapis and the exit even as Lapis slowly drifted to the ground in a defensive posture.

“What’s going on down here?” Iris Agate’s voice preceded her down the stairs. As she stepped down far enough to see what was happening, she paused for a moment, taking in the scene before her. Iris only needed one look at Lumi, Pearl, and their opponent before she leapt bodily at Lapis Lazuli with a snarl.

Lapis’s eyes darted to the center of the room where the ice spear was still stuck through the now deceased orb. She pointed at it, then pointed at the Agate as she flew through the air. The orb shattered completely as the spike was violently ripped from it. In flight, the water melted and widened into a thick pillar that caught Iris around the middle when she was still meters away from Lapis.

Iris was carried straight into the wall by the force of the hit. Lapis clenched her fist, and the pillar froze in place, trapping Iris sideways against the wall with her arms pinned to her sides.

“IRIS!” shouted Lumi and Pearl in unison.

With a fierce yell, Pearl charged towards Lapis with her sword raised.

Lapis leaned back with her hands spread out to either side. With a scything motion, she crossed her arms together palms up in front of her. The tips of her wings streamed outward towards her two assailants. Pearl stopped short in her charge and braced for impact, as did Lumi, but instead the two streams of water enclosed themselves around each of their hands. Lapis balled her fists and pulled her arms in towards her chest, and suddenly the water transformed into two pairs of chained manticles that yanked Lumi and Pearl forward with a yelp.

Lapis raised her arms above her head like a demented puppeteer and Lumi and Pearl followed suit, each kicking their legs helplessly in the air. With a grunt of effort, Lapis slashed her arms outward. Lumi and Pearl were whipped mercilessly into the walls opposite each other. Lumi grunted from the impact, and Pearl’s sword clattered to the ground as she was slammed against the wall.

Before either of them could catch their breath, the water around their wrists froze, leaving them suspended a few centimeters above the ground. Lapis stepped forward and directed additional streams of water to hold them in place around their hands, waists, and ankles until she was satisfied that they were thoroughly trapped.

“Whatever you think you’re doing,” said Pearl, “this won’t-”

“ _Shut up_.”

A baseball sized globe of water struck Pearl in the face and froze over her mouth and nose. She glared down at Lapis and continued to grunt indignantly.

Lapis swept her eyes back and forth until she was satisfied that all of her foes had been incapacitated. Iris Agate looked like she was trying to kick herself off of the wall with her feet, but was finding no purchase. At a glare from Lapis she stopped struggling. Lapis finally lowered her arms, and nearly toppled sideways as some of the tension left her body.

As she turned to leave the room, Lapis gave one parting glance at Lumi but suddenly stopped. She faced Lumi fully and looked up at her with growing surprise.

“What?” said Lumi, shortly.

“It’s true then, you really are half hu-.”

“Is that Lapis down there?”

Lapis looked as though a thunderbolt had struck her when she heard the sound of Peridot’s voice.

A limb enhanced foot stepped down from the upper level, and Lumi’s technical engineer leaned down into the room. “What’s she doing… here…”

Peridot took in the sight of her entire team pinned against various walls around the room, and of the unfamiliar Lazuli backing away from her in terror.

“Uhhh… what did I miss?”

Lapis took a second look at the new Peridot and gave a sigh of relief. She sprouted a fresh pair of wings from her gem, jumped into the air, and dove down the staircase to the floor below.

Iris Agate was the first to move. She planted her feet firmly against the wall and pushed with all her might. She succeeded in dislodging herself from the wall, but the ice around her did not break. Iris squeaked in alarm as she fell and landed face first with the ice finally shattering against the floor.

“Go help Pearl,” said Lumi, unnecessarily. Iris was already halfway to her before Lumi spoke up.

Experimentally, Lumi tried to free herself by firing off a laser blast from her hand, but the beam mostly refracted through the ice and hit the ceiling in a scattershot pattern causing Peridot to yelp in alarm. Lumi thought she could brute force her way out of the ice, but she had another idea, and closed her eyes to concentrate.

Lumi had seen her mother’s Pearl do it hundreds of times and had always reasoned that since she was an extension of herself, then she should be able to do it as well. Even with that in mind, it had still taken Lumi _years_ before she could do it successfully. Whether it was because her body was half-human, or if her mother had had just as much difficulty with this particular party trick, Lumi had no way of knowing.

Lumi focused her attention on the feeling of the ice against her skin. She felt the ice trapping her hands, trapping her feet, trapping her waist. With an effort of will, she chose to not feel those sensations any longer. There was a lurch, and suddenly Lumi was standing on the floor and able to step forward.

Lumi opened her eyes and turned around. The icy shackles that had imprisoned her a moment ago still hung on the wall fully intact, but Lumi was no longer inside them. Her cape was still stuck behind the block of ice that had held her waist, but one swift hammer punch fixed that problem.

There! Now everything was… Wait.

Lumi looked down and realized she had left one of her shoes inside the block of ice when she became intangible.

“Eh, nobody’s perfect,” Lumi shrugged, kicking off her other shoe.

“That was incredible!” shouted Peridot.

“What is it? What happened?” asked a new voice. While Lumi had been focused inward, Peridot had opened a view screen with her limb enhancer. Lumi could see Carnelian on the other end of the call.

“A Lapis Lazuli caught us off guard,” said Lumi, leaning down next to Peridot so Carnelian could see her, “but we’re all fine, Carnelian.”

“I’ll send our Lapis after her right away,” said the soldier, “Nephrite’s ship doesn’t have any weapons, but I could-”

“No,” said Lumi.

“My Diamond?”

Lumi looked over at Pearl, who was still in the process of getting chipped out of the ice with the assistance of Iris. “She’s _mine_.”

Carnelian looked surprised for only a moment before her face settled into a wolfish grin. “As you wish, My Diamond.” Carnelian gave a salute while Lumi grabbed one of Peridot’s floating touch stumps and jabbed at the screen to end the call.

Lumi crossed the room in two hops and landed near Iris and Pearl. “I’m going after her. Get back to the ship and catch up as soon as you can.”

“You’re going to _what?!_ ” Iris nearly shouted.

“Uumi?” Pearl tried to speak, but her mouth was still encased in ice.

Before they could object further, Lumi bounded off and was down the stairs with a flick of her cape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Round 1 goes to Lapis Lazuli!
> 
> I imagine some people might question the fact that Lapis never went for any fatal (or at least poofing) blows during the fight, and the reason for that is very simple: it's honestly not in her character to fight like that, especially not at this point in her character arc. Feeling trapped is the worst thing Lapis has ever felt, and so that is always the feeling she tries to inflict on others when she's backed into a corner. The most infamous example of this is of course when she decided to trap Jasper inside Malachite instead of just throwing the ocean at her, but even later on when she joined the Crystal Gems in the fight against Blue Diamond, she mostly focused on restraining her instead of going full offence. That's just the way she fights.
> 
> I was honestly somewhat tempted to have that chapter summery be THE ENTIRE CHAPTER, and then we'd just pick up in the aftermath, but this chapter does have some important character interactions.
> 
> One of the difficulties with this story is that it - much like the show - has been told entirely from Lumi's perspective (although I plan on switching to Steven's perspective for some chapters. The fic is titled TWO of a Kind after all), which means that there are some things that I just haven't had much opportunity to show; most predominantly, the relationship between Iris Agate and Lumi's Pearl. Hopefully it doesn't feel like a development that comes out of nowhere when we get to see more of them in a casual setting.
> 
> In other news, you're getting a consistent update schedule this week! The next two chapters will come out Tuesday and Thursday, and with any luck, Chapter 13 will be ready for early next week. Enjoy!


	11. L vs L: Round 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis escapes, and Lumi gives chase!

As Lumi dropped to the floor below, she touched the geode pendant around her neck to activate the life support force field. She had a feeling it would be a bad idea to split her attention between maintaining her own air supply and fighting Lapis in the vacuum of space. Lumi scanned the room throughout her descent. She was all but certain that Lapis had fled the tower when she’d had the chance, but it would be embarrassing to lose her to such a simple ploy.

Lumi hit the ground hard, not bothering to slow her speed in the slightest. She landed in a crouch and immediately sprang towards the door. The control panel next to the door lit up as she landed against it and Lumi let herself get sucked out into the lunar landscape as the door opened.

Lumi skimmed across the lunar surface, looking around her. There, dead ahead of her just as she’d predicted, was a blue dot retreating against the backdrop of space. Lumi skidded through the lunar dust and launched herself forward once… twice… after the third jump, Lumi did not touch the ground again.

If Lapis thought she was the only gem who could fly, she was sorely mistaken.

Lumi streaked through the sky after Lapis. At this distance, she couldn’t tell if she was gaining or losing ground, but she felt confident she could at least keep pace with the blue gem until she tried to find a spot to lay low. Lumi didn’t have to wait long before Lapis suddenly dove towards the ground. Did she see a place to hide amongst the terrain?

Lumi surged forward, but when she crested the next hill she stopped dead, not believing what she was seeing.

It was a large wooden structure, painted red and completely open to the elements. Various bric-a-brac was attached to or sticking out of it at various points, including most prominently a large metal cylinder that appeared to have been shoved through one wall, and what Lumi thought she recognized as an automobile hanging precariously above the main entrance to the building. On the ground next to it was a tent with a flagpole on top, but with no wind on the lunar surface, the flag hung limp and was impossible to identify. It looked as though somebody had scooped the ground up all around the structure and lifted the whole thing into space from earth.

Lumi stared dumbfounded. Lapis Lazuli landed and started drawing water out of a pipe leading to the metal cylinder and directing it into the space were earthen ground met lunar dust. Lumi shook herself back to her senses. She didn’t know what this building was, but it must have been important for Lapis to pause her escape to collect it. As Lumi drew near, Lapis lifted the structure up into space and began flying straight towards earth.

Great. If she was able to warn the Crystal Gems that she was coming, Lumi would have no choice but to eradicate them, and she would lose her chance to question them about Pink Diamond, and about Steven.

Lumi pressed forward. Lapis was moving slower now that she had her home in tow, and within minutes, Lumi was near enough to get a clear shot at her. Lumi took aim, but the glint of Lapis’s gem in the sunlight made Lumi pause. With her back to her like this, there was a chance that Lumi could hit her gem, and she didn’t want to shatter her. She _certainly_ didn’t want to shatter her with a cheap shot from behind like this. And so Lumi fired into the empty space in between Lapis and the water-borne structure.

Lapis flinched sideways and then turned around in shock to see Lumi tailing her.

“You are coming with me!” declared Lumi. She knew Lapis couldn’t hear her through the vacuum of space, and so she punctuated her statement with broad gestures, first pointing towards Lapis, then to herself, then to the moon, which was now distantly behind them.

“I just want to be left ALONE!” shouted Lapis, pulling two globes of water off of her wings and flinging them towards Lumi.

Lumi responded by reaching her hand up to her gem and pulled forth her own weapon. At first, it didn’t resemble a weapon at all, only a simple black cylinder with metallic engravings, but when Lumi touched the tip of it with her fingers and drew back, a shining white blade curved outward, along with a hilt guard made of the same hard light.

With two quick slashes, the spheres of water were sliced apart into harmless clouds of globules. Lapis sent forth a tendril of water and made to grab Lumi, but it was likewise hacked apart by Lumi’s blade and dispitated into space.

Lumi responded to the attacks with a laser blast of her own. Lapis pulled one of her wings around to shield her, and the light bent as it hit the water, changing its trajectory. She dodged Lumi’s next blast and the pair of them began circling each other sending volleys of attacks at one another.

The ferocity of Lapis’s watery barrage kept Lumi from closing the distance and finishing the fight with her sword. But at the same time, Lapis could not land a decisive hit though Lumi’s defense.

Lumi adjusted her blasts to make them more hard light rather than light-light. Instead of refracting through Lapis’s watery shield, Lumi’s shots were now blocked entirely. However, after every shot, a small amount of water was thrown off into space and evaporated. Lumi fired at one of the wings itself, and successfully sheared a chunk of it off, forcing Lapis to rebalance herself with water from her other wing.

With each exchange, Lapis’s water supply dwindled, until she was finally forced to retreat to the building and use the water meant to carry it back to Earth. Lapis stood on top of her home and drew forth every liter of water she could into one swirling mass around her.

Lumi looked for an opening to get at Lapis, but couldn’t find one through the maelstrom she had created.

Lapis raised her hand, and above the swirling vortex of water rose a gigantic hand that arched above Lumi. With an ax-like motion from Lapis, the hand came bearing down upon the white gem.

“Pearl’s going to hate me for this,” Lumi said to herself as she flew straight at the arm to meet it head on.

Even Lapis seemed surprised by Lumi’s brazen assault, but Lumi paid her no mind. She only had one shot at this. At the last possible second, Lumi threw a protective bubble around herself as the watery fingers closed in around her.

Lumi was buffeted on all sides by rushing water as she forced her way up through the arm. All of her focus was on maintaining the bubble that stood between her and the crushing torrent of water. It felt like hours, but after only a few seconds, Lumi could feel the pressure letting up. Lumi was not longer just holding her position, she was moving forward through the arm. With every ounce of effort, she shot upward, clearing the watery appendage and coming out into clear space.

Time seemed to stop. Lapis looked up in horror as she realized that there was nothing standing between her and Lumi. As the bubble dropped around her, Lumi already had her arm pulled back ready to strike.

“Would you. Just. STOP!” shouted Lumi as she fired one final beam at the blue gem.

In a blind panic, Lapis covered her head with her arms and turned her back on her attacker.

“Wait! **_No!_** ” shouted Lumi, but too late. The beam of light struck Lapis directly in the gem.

Lapis screamed in agony.

Lumi screamed in horror. She tried to pull her hand away, to stop the beam of light that was destroying Lapis, but couldn’t. She looked down at her own hand in confusion. She felt… _drained_ , somehow. Not just exhausted, it was like her very _being_ was flowing out of her through that beam of light.

Below her, Lapis continued to scream. Was it a trick of the light, or did her gem look duller than it did a moment ago? Lapis looked up at her attacker, and for a split second, Lumi could swear that she was seeing _herself_ from the blue gem’s perspective.

Lumi dropped her sword and grabbed her wrist with her freed hand. With all her strength, she was able to pull it back and broke the mysterious connection to her opponent.

“What was _that?_ ” Lumi asked herself, looking down at her rebellious hand. She clenched and unclenched her fist a few times, but nothing felt out of place. Nothing obvious could explain the strange sensation she had just felt when she had struck…

Lapis!

Somehow, without gravity, Lapis was lying unconscious on her back on the roof of the building. Lumi flew down and rolled her over to examine her gem. It appeared undamaged. There were no cracks on its surface and it shone the same bright blue that it always had. Could Lumi have been imagining things after all?

Lumi looked out around her. The water that Lapis had been controlling was beginning to boil away into space, and the building below them was listing aimlessly. Off in the distance, Lumi could see her own ship closing in towards them. Lumi gave a sigh of relief and hoisted Lapis up under one arm.

As Lumi began to fly towards her ship, she felt Lapis stirring next to her.

“Ughh, wha… Where am I? Where’s… The barn! _Where’s the barn?_ ” Lapis’s eyes snapped open and she started squirming around in Lumi’s grasp.

“Hey!”

“There! I can see it!” Lapis had twisted around and was looking backwards. “Please, we have to get it!”

“Would you stop!” grunted Lumi. She wasn’t even sure whether or not Lapis could hear her outside her personal environment.

Lapis grabbed the front of Lumi’s dress and dragged them around so they were facing the barn, “No, please! You don’t understand! I can’t lose the barn! It’s all I have left!” Lapis braced herself against Lumi and tried to free herself, but her strength was all but gone. Lumi saw her gem glow as Lapis tried to summon a pair of wings, but only a few drops of water came out before Lapis grimaced in pain.

“You’re going to hurt yourself,” said Lumi.

“It doesn’t matter!” said Lapis, her voice cracking, “I’ve screwed everything else up, I can’t lose the barn too. Please, I’ll go with you, I promise, just please let me get the barn!”

Lumi looked back at the strange wooden building. The “barn” evidently. Inside, Lumi could see a mystifying assortment of goods floating around in zero gravity, including an anatomical dummy sticking out of a globe and a large assortment of toilets.

Lumi held a hand out towards the barn, her palm glowing.

Lapis froze, one tear clinging to her cheek as she waited to see what Lumi would do. “Please…”

Lumi sighed. After the fight she’d just put up, Lumi decided that she at least owed Lapis this much.

Lumi snapped her fingers, purely for effect. A transparent silver bubble formed around the barn and began to drift towards them.

“Thank you,” said Lapis as she slumped forward, all of the fight drained out of her.

“Mmm,” said Lumi by way of acknowledgement. With that, Lumi turned around to meet her ship with her eclectic cargo in tow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Round 2 goes to Lumi Diamond!
> 
> Some of you were so worried about how OP Lapis is, that you forgot how OP WHITE DIAMOND is. (Also, a lot of you wanted Lapis to blood bend, which... yeah, that'd be cool. I loved AtLA and Korra too, but that's not really a thing Lapis does rofl. Maybe she'll do that in a future episode someday, and if that happens I'll have to go back to the drawing board here because Lumi would be SUPER dead, but today is not that day lol.)
> 
> So to recap Lumi's power set, she's got:  
> -intangibility  
> -flight  
> -super human endurance (even in lunar gravity, dropping down about 50 meters is still not advisable)  
> -shape shifting (mentioned, but not demonstrated)  
> -laser beams with various properties (one of which you should be VERY familiar with by now if you've watched Change Your Mind)  
> -And there's no way I WASN'T going to give my girl a lightsaber for a weapon.


	12. L vs L: Final Round

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fight is over, but Lapis and Lumi still have unfinished business as the young Diamond interviews the mysterious ocean gem.

The barn did not fit _easily_ in the hangar of Lumi’s ship, but it did fit after some cajoling. Lumi allowed their visitor to supervise her parking job before she was escorted to the brig. Lumi’s own Lapis and Carnelian took the mystery Lapis away without issue. Lumi watched them go from the hangar, noting that the visiting Lapis kept her distance from the large quartz soldier.

Lumi sighed. “If I’d known we’d be taking prisoners this early in the mission, I’d have asked for a couple of Citrines for the trip.”

“Why not just bubble her?” asked Pearl, somewhat sulkily.

“Maybe later. If we bubbled her now, I wouldn’t be able to question her.”

“You do realize she’s probably with the Crystal Gems, right? She was accused of being one once already, and she dropped out of contact with us at the same time Peridot-5XG did.”

“True. Given her reaction to _me_ , I think it’s safe to say she doesn’t want anything to do with Homeworld anymore. But I think she knows something about Steven.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Something she said to me right before she fled the tower. I think she recognized that I’m half-human, but she ran away when Peridot came downstairs.”

“That was strange, by the way. She beat you, me, and Iris, but _Peridot_ scared her away?”

“Another thing worth asking about. Anyway, as long as we keep this ‘barn’ safe for her, I think she’ll cooperate with us.”

“What are all these things, anyway?” asked Pearl peeking in at the unfathomable mess inside the barn.

“They’re hostages is what they are. Beyond that, I couldn’t tell you.”

“It still seems risky. Could you imagine what would have happened if we’d had to fight her on Earth where she had a proper water supply?”

“Yeah,” Lumi shuddered, “I would not want to try that without our Lapis as backup. Gotta hand it to her, though. Not a lot of gems could or _would_ try to stand up to a Diamond like that.”

Pearl rolled her eyes. “You like her.”

“What?”

“You like her because she’s feisty and she’s a troublemaker. I saw your eyes before you went chasing after her and you weren’t even that mad at her. You were just too stubborn to accept that she beat you.”

“She _surprised_ me, she didn’t _beat_ me. Have I mentioned how annoying it is that you can read me so easily?”

“Not everybody literally color codes their emotions,” said Pearl laughing.

“Besides, I handled her just fine the second time around, thank you very much,” said Lumi haughtily.

“I wanted to ask you about that, actually.” Pearl looked around the hangar to see if they were being listened to. The only other gem with them was Nephrite going about her business some distance away. Pearl leaned in closer to Lumi. “What happened out there? You looked a little… off when you flew in here.”

“‘Off’, how?”

“You looked a little pale is all, like you get when you haven’t slept in a long time. And the only time I’ve seen your eyes get that white is when you were speaking through your mother’s Pearl.”

Lumi’s eyes widened in alarm.

“They’re back to normal now!” said Pearl, quickly, “but what happened?”

“We can talk about it later,” said Lumi, “Promise. For now let’s just say that I had to dig deep during our fight. I think I’m going to go talk to our guest now. Find out how much she knows and how much value there is in keeping her unbubbled.”

“If you’re going to interrogate our prisoner, you should probably put shoes on first,” said Pearl.

Lumi looked down at her bare feet. She had completely forgotten about them in the excitement of the space battle.

“Did anyone pick up my shoes from Pink’s base?”

“Nope,” said Pearl, cheerfully.

“Come to think of it, did we get the data we needed? We did kind of rush out of there.”

“Peridot stayed behind to finish her job. I can message her with your very important shoe assignment.”

“You are very sassy today.”

“ _You_ didn’t get a block of ice shoved in your mouth.”

“Alright, alright. We packed some travel shoes for when we got to Earth. I can wear those. I would actually like those shoes back, though,” she added, sheepishly.

“I’ll take care of it,” said Pearl, pulling a pair of stylish black boots out of her gem. “Go have your talk with our new guest.”

No longer barefoot, Lumi found Iris Agate waiting for her outside the prison cells.

“How is she?” asked Lumi.

“She went into the cell quietly… for now.”

“You don’t trust her?”

“You do?”

“I don’t think she has much of a choice but to cooperate.”

“Hmm.”

“How’re you and Pearl doing?”

“I’m fine. Pearl I think is mostly upset that you went to fight Lapis without her.”

“Yeah, I got that impression from talking to her too.”

“What _do_ you hope to get out of her?

“Not sure yet. I’m still not clear on where her loyalties lie. Figure that out first, and then we can decide if she can be useful from there.”

Lapis was pacing back and forth as the two gems approached. When she saw that she had visitors, Lapis stopped to face them from the center of her cell. She _almost_ looked relaxed, except for the fists balled up at her sides.

“What do you want?” asked Lapis.

“I take it you know who I am?” said Lumi.

“You’re White Diamond’s daughter.”

“I…” Lumi and Iris looked at each other, their eyebrows raised. “Uhh… usually that requires more explaining. You… don’t seem surprised.”

Lapis shrugged. “I heard some rumors when I came back to Homeworld, but I didn’t believe it until I saw you at at the moon base.”

“Err… right. Anyway, just White Diamond will do. Why were-”

“You don’t have a name?”

“What makes you think I have another name?”

“Oh!” Lapis rubbed her arm nervously. “You’re right. It would be weird for White Diamond to give you a name instead of a number.”

“And just what is _that_ supposed to mean?!”

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t talk about the Diamonds that way!”

“Well, _I_ am a Diamond, and _I_ want to hear what you have to say! So what do you know about White Mother? My Diamond. White Diamond.”

“I…” Lapis’s eyes darted between Lumi and Iris Agate, but Iris looked just as baffled by the route of this conversation as she did.

“I guess I don’t know much more about her than any other gem. I only saw her a couple of times when I was part of Blue Diamond’s court. She was…” Lapis shuddered. “It’s like she was to the Diamonds what Blue Diamond is to the rest of us. Just being in her presence knowing what kind of power she had… I still have a hard time believing that she gave up her physical form like Ro-”

Lapis stopped, suddenly fearful that she’d said too much.

“Nevermind Rose Quartz,” said Lumi. “What makes you think my mother wouldn’t give up her physical form?”

“It’s just… hard to imagine. She was always this constant untouchable _thing_ at the center of our universe. All the Diamonds are really, but her even moreso. And when she _did_ come down from on high, it was always terrifying. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what she did to the Crystal Gems at the end of the rebellion, but do you know about her Pearl?”

There was a snort, and Lumi glared at her companion. Iris now had her hand over her mouth and was struggling to keep her composure.

“I’m… familiar,” Lumi stated.

Lumi was at a complete loss. She felt like she should be insulted that this Lazuli was talking about her mother like this, but not only was Lapis saying things she already knew, she was saying things that _Lumi herself_ had said about her mother.

“In any case, my mother _did_ give me a name, thank you very much,” said Lumi, defiantly.

“O… kay,” said Lapis, not sounding at all sure why she needed to be convinced of that.

“And getting back to the topic at hand, it’s obvious why you’re so blasé about my being half human. So. Let’s talk about Steven.”

“No.”

“No? May I remind you that I can toss your ‘barn’ out into space any time I want?”

“Steven’s more important than that. You can keep looking for him all you want, but I’m not telling you anything to help you catch him.”

Lumi and Iris shot each other a glance.

“So, you are with the Crystal Gems, then?” ask Lumi.

Lapis laughed, bitterly. “At least some things haven’t changed after five thousand years. No. I’m not a Crystal Gem. I wasn’t a Crystal Gem when Blue Diamond shoved me in a mirror, and I’m not one now. I just don’t want you going after Steven.”

“And why’s that?”

“He’s… not like me. He’s a good person. The Crystal Gems never cared who I was, never asked where my gem came from before it was stuck in a mirror. For 5,000 years they just asked me their questions and when I wouldn’t answer them anymore, they forgot about me. But Steven, he talked to me, he listened when I asked him for help. He saved me from 5,000 years of torment, and he never asked for anything in return. He just wanted to be my friend, and all I’ve ever done is let him down again and again. So you can go back to Homeworld and look for him all you want, but I’d rather be shattered than help you!”

“In that case, I just have one more question. How did you know that Steven has escaped?”

"What?"

"You assumed I came here trying to catch Steven. Why would I be looking for him when he was captured a week ago?"

Lapis blinked. Then her face contorted into an expression of horror as she realized what she had just done. Lapis slammed her fists into her face and fell to her knees on the floor, her whole body shaking.

“...” Lapis whispered.

“What was that?” asked Lumi

“I said. Just. _SHATTER ME_!” Lapis screamed. Lapis pounded her fist against the force field separating her from the outside gems. The two of them jumped back in surprise. Lapis was thrown backwards as an electric jolt shot through the forcefield.

Lapis stood back up and stalked back to the forcefield. “All I ever DO, is hurt people I CARE ABOUT!” Lapis continued to punch the forcefield for emphasis. “Well, no more!” Lapis hammered both of her fists into the energy wall and held them there.

“Lapis, stop!” shouted Lumi, shielding her eyes from the electric discharge that had flared up around Lapis.

“I’m DONE being a prisoner! I’m DONE hurting people! I thought running away would make it all stop, but I messed that up too! So just shatter me! SHATTER ME! _SHATTER MEE EE EE E E E !_ ”

Lapis’s entire form began to distort.

“ _Tsh_ ,” said Lumi. This gem was getting _exhausting_. Lumi charged at Lapis. Her half-human body passed through the shield harmlessly, although it did tingle a little. Lumi barreled into Lapis and carried her forward until she had her pinned against the back wall in a bear hug.

Lapis braced herself against Lumi’s shoulder, disoriented. Lumi gave her a moment to get her bearings before speaking.

“Lapis, listen to me,” Lapis leaned away from Lumi’s face, which was now centimeters away from hers. “ _I don’t want to hurt Steven_.”

Lapis glared at Lumi suspiciously.

“You know who I am. And you know **_what_ **I am. Steven might be the only other person in the universe like me. I don’t want to lose this chance to meet him.”

Lapis looked away from Lumi, frowning slightly.

“Now will you promise to stop hurting yourself if I let you go?”

Lapis looked at her strangely, and then burst into a fit of laughter. “I don’t think I know how to do that.”

That was good enough for Lumi, who gently set Lapis down on her feet. Lumi sat down with her back against the wall and motioned for Lapis to do the same. Lapis held her skirt against her legs and mimicked Lumi. Lumi noticed how Lapis leaned forward so her gem didn’t scrape against the wall as she sat down.

Lumi looked out and saw Iris, who was still standing on the other side of the forcefield looking at Lumi in dismay. The pair of them had a short silent conversation with a series glares and head bobs.

_Give us some space._

_Are you kidding me? No._

_Iris._

_Lumi._

_Iris!_

_Fine! My Diamond! But Pearl is going to hear about this._

And with that, Iris stomped off down the hallway.

Lapis spoke first. “What do you want with Steven?”

“I just want to find him.”

“I mean after that.”

Lumi looked at Lapis and considered her words carefully. It was clear the water gem still didn’t trust her. Why would she? For now, honesty was her best play. “Well, get him off of Earth, for a start. I don’t want him to be there when… let’s just say that the Earth isn’t going to be safe for him much longer.”

Lapis snorted.

“What’s so funny?”

“You won’t get him to leave just because it’s dangerous. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“You have?”

“Twice, actually. I wanted to take him far away from here. Away from Crystal Gems, away from Diamonds, someplace where we could finally be free. We could have found a habitable world; someplace nobody would ever look for us, just me, Steven and… but no. I messed that up too.” Lapis curled up around herself more tightly.

Lumi gave Lapis a moment before continuing. “And that’s when you went to the moon? You couldn’t get Steven and… Steven to go with you, so you left? Why’d you stop there?”

“I couldn’t stand the thought of not knowing what would happen while I was gone. So I stayed on the moon to keep an eye on… him.”

“That’s why you destroyed the observation orb. You didn’t want us spying on him instead.”

Lapis nodded.

“Okay, there’s an elephant in the room here, and I’ve been trying to ignore it, but who’s this other person besides you and Steven?”

“You don’t need to know about her.”

“That’s for me to decide.”

“Look, can we just focus on why you’re here, please?” Lapis snapped. “What do you want to do with Steven if you get him off Earth? What do the other Diamonds want to do with him?”

Lumi eyed Lapis evenly. Lapis was probably right. Her mysterious companion wasn’t important to Lumi’s mission, and it was more valuable to keep Lapis talking.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Yellow and Blue Diamond want to destroy Steven.”

Lapis flinched.

“But that’s why I came to Earth,” Lumi continued hastily. “Yellow Diamond wants to shatter him for the crimes of Rose Quartz. As you can imagine, I have a personal reason to object to that,” Lumi tapped the gem on her forehead for emphasis, “but that wasn’t enough to change her mind.”

“So it is hopeless after all,” said Lapis flatly.

“Not yet it isn’t. Something happened when Yellow and Blue put Steven on trial. - They disinvited _me_ , by the way. - I don’t think Rose Quartz is guilty of the crimes she is accused of. If I can clear her name, I can clear Steven’s name, and then Yellow Diamond will have to show him mercy.”

Lapis gave another snorting laugh. “Stars, you’re just like him. You both want the impossible.”

“Is that good?”

“Maybe," said Lapis with a smile. "So, you do all that. You convince the Diamonds not to kill Steven, then what? He’s not going to leave Earth. (Again. Been there, done that.)”

“He’s not going to have a choice. Earth is doomed already. Either he’ll come with me, or he’ll die.”

“Then he’ll die,” said Lapis, simply.

“That…” Lumi looked into Lapis’s eyes. Whatever uncertainty had been in them at the start of their conversation was long gone. Lumi could see her own face reflected in Lapis’s eyes as the water gem stared at her intently. Lumi’s own eyes were now shining an icy shade of blue.

“You really don’t want to hurt him, do you?”

“No, said Lumi, resignation setting in on her face, “but I may have to. I’m not _just_ here to help Steven. Retaking the Earth is my responsibility.”

“So don’t.”

“Huh?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but why can’t you leave the Earth the way that it is? It’s pretty nice, I guess, and there are… like… leaves and junk.”

Lumi gave Lapis a bemused smile.

“Look, Steven is better at this sort of thing than I am, but you’re a Diamond. If you really want to help Steven then just do it.”

“I can’t. This is something I have to do. There are… other reasons why I can’t avoid it.” A pair of white eyes looking back at her through a mirror flashed through Lumi’s memory.

“Now you’re starting to sound like me,” said Lapis, sadly.

The two of them sat in silence for a moment before Lumi stood up.

“So what are you going to do with me?” asked Lapis without looking up.

“I still have more questions for you. We need to clear up what happened to you, Jasper and Peridot after you captured Steven the first time.”

“Jasper is gone. Steven would have helped her if he could, but she fused with a monster and it ruined her.” Lapis gave a hollow laugh, but Lumi was quite sure she didn’t get the joke.

“In any case, you will stay here for now.”

“As long as I’m answering questions, right?”

Hiding her guilty expression, Lumi turned to leave the cell.

“White Diamond?”

“Hmm?”

“I won’t help you find him, but if you do, please listen to what he has to say. He really is much better at talking about Earth than I am. It might make your decision easier.”

 _Or harder_ , Lumi thought to herself.

“And if you do find him, he really will want to know your name.”

The Diamond paused in front of the energy wall. “It’s Lumi.”

“As in Luminescence? That’s fitting.”

“Accurate, but no. That’s not where my name comes from. If you’re _unbelievably_ lucky, maybe I’ll tell you the story one day.”

“With my luck, I wouldn’t count on it,” said Lapis.

Lumi stepped through the forcefield, just as she had when she entered the cell. As she turned to walk down the hallway, Lapis’s voice suddenly caught up to her.

“Hey, wait! You’re half-human, right? That means you must have food.”

Lumi gave her a puzzled look. “Why do you need food?”

Lapis shrugged. “I don’t really, but eating is a habit Steven got me into.”

“I didn’t even know gems _could_ eat.” When she was a child, Lumi had tried to get Pearl, Iris, and even the Diamonds to share her food with her, but they had all staunchly refused.

“It takes a little adjusting, but it’s not difficult. Could I have some?”

“I don’t see why not,” said Lumi, after a moment’s thought. “Most of my food is fruit from the Human Zoo. For this trip, I’ve got orange fruit, yellow fruit, and green fruit.”

“Definitely not orange fruit,” said Lapis, flatly. “Yellow fruit sounds good though.”

“I’ll have some sent down later.”

“Thank you.”

Lumi had only walked a few paces when she found Pearl leaning against the entrance to a neighboring cell and looking at Lumi with a smug smile.

“I told you you’d like her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Round 3 ends in something of a draw. Lumi is undoubtedly in the better position, but Lapis is still on her feet, which is certainly some kind of victory.
> 
> VERY early on, I had envisioned this scene being much more confrontational (hence the chapter title), but it felt out of character for Lapis to suddenly start trading verbal barbs with White Flipping Diamond from inside a prison cell. And on the flip side, Lumi shares a lot of my personal biases, and so her feeling sympathetic towards Lapis despite herself was almost autobiographical.
> 
> Fun fact about writing this chapter: Lapis revealing that Steven is on Earth happened almost entirely by accident. In Raising the Barn, Steven tells Lapis that the Diamonds should still be looking for him on Homeworld, so I had Lapis repeat that to Lumi and the conversation just continued normally.
> 
> "Go back to Homeworld and look for him without me."  
> "But if you help me find him before the other Diamonds..." etc
> 
> It wasn't until later that I realized Lapis shouldn't have any way of knowing that Steven escaped AT ALL, let alone think that Lumi would want her help finding him. But I decided that it was still an in-character mistake for Lapis to make, so instead of fixing that one line to plug up a continuity error, I rewrote a large chunk of the conversation around that accidental reveal. I had originally planned on Lumi finding out that Steven was on Earth only when she happened to find him herself, but now the cat's out of the bag.


End file.
